Ten Lakes alternative proposed

Two local groups have filed an alternate proposal to the Forest Service’s Ten Lakes Travel Management Plan, which was released in April. The alternate proposal has the support of the Board of Commissioners of Lincoln County as well as that of the Lincoln County delegation to the Montana State Legislature.

 “I think that the United States Forest Service should give strong consideration to this proposal,” said Sen. Chas Vincent of Libby. “It represents a significant amount of diligent work by many of my constituents that have historically recreated in and around the Ten Lakes Wilderness Study Area.”

The groups, Montanans for Multiple Use – North Lincoln County Chapter and the Ten Lakes Snowmobile Club – presented the alternate to the Forest Service during the public comment period for the service’s Ten Lakes travel management plan, which ended last month. It calls for less motorized recreational use inside the formal boundaries of the Wilderness Study Area and greater access to the surrounding terrain. The groups claim the alternative is a more realistic plan, which better addresses the needs of the environment and the community.

“The proposal for over-the-snow season offers more of a reality by having boundaries between management areas better definable using ridge tops, roads or creeks as the boundary and by having just one season starting Thanksgiving Day and ending April 30,” said Montanans for Multiple Use North Lincoln County Chapter president Scott Mattheis. “The proposal offers a good mix of quiet recreation opportunities and motorized recreation opportunities that better match the historical and cultural heritage of the area. The proposal reduces motorized opportunities in the Ten Lakes Wilderness Study Area but still allows good dispersal of over-the-snow recreation.”

The Ten Lakes project area in the proposed management plan is 64,177 acres located north and east of Eureka. It includes, but is not limited to, the Ten Lakes Wilderness Study Area, which was created by an act of Congress in 1977. Under the congressional declaration, the Wilderness Study Area was to be maintained in its 1977 condition pending a final decision by Congress about permanent wilderness status for the area. The decision was expected by 1984, but has yet to be made, leaving the area in a sort of legal limbo.

Mattheis said the Forest Service’s proposal will eventually result in the complete elimination of snowmobiling from the area.

“The Forest Service proposal is a recipe to eliminate snowmobiling in the Ten Lakes Wilderness Study Area,” he said.

Mattheis said the Forest Service plan is too restrictive on the terrain surrounding the actual Wilderness Study Area, which forces motorized recreation into the protected area. Once snowmobile activity inside the study area reaches a critical mass, he said, the Forest Service will have no choice but to shut it down. With restrictions already in place in the surrounding areas, snowmobile enthusiasts will have nowhere else to go.

Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Peck said the alternative proposed by the local groups deserves the attention of the Forest Service.

“It’s a very well thought out and very well presented alternative,” he said.

The commissioners decided last week to support the alternate proposal, but have not yet drafted a letter of support. The Lincoln County delegation to the Montana State Legislature are in the same position. Reps. Mike Cuffe and Jerry Bennett, along with Sen. Chas Vincent, agreed to draft a letter of support, but have not yet submitted it.

“It is my understanding that it complies with the 2007 lawsuit settlement agreement, which the United States Forest Service is bound by, and is a good faith attempt to address the concerns that have been raised by the Montana Wilderness Association,” Vincent said.

The Northwest Field Director for the Montana Wilderness Association, Amy Robinson, said she has not seen the details of the alternate proposal but the association did not support the Forest Service’s proposal as submitted in April.

“I think it’s safe to say that Montana Wilderness Association has several concerns with the Forest Service proposal,” she said.

Robinson said the initial proposal was too imbalanced, paying too much attention to motorized use and not enough to non-motorized recreation and wildlife. That use, she said, doesn’t conform to the 1977 Wilderness Study Act requirements.

“When you have uses that don’t conform to wilderness, it makes the designation difficult to make after the fact,” she said.

The Wilderness Study Act requires the designated area to be maintained, in perpetuity, for the same level of use and recreation as it was in 1977. That requirement, ruled United States District Judge Donald Molloy in 2001, also required the Forest Service to provide the same opportunities to motorized recreation as existed in 1977.

“Congress required that the Forest Service ensure continuing opportunities for enjoyment of the study areas by use of motorized vehicles, as well as continued opportunities for enjoyment of the study areas’ wilderness character,” he wrote.

In 1975 the Fortine Ranger District released a final environmental statement for the area, in which is anticipated 2,000 visitor days per year for over-the-snow motorized recreational use. Mattheis said no concrete data has been gathered by the Forest Service regarding the level of snowmobile use in the area, but his group counts snowmobiles entering the area. In 2014, he said, 1,850 snowmobiles entered the Ten Lakes area.

Ranger Bryan Donner, of the Fortine and Rexford ranger districts, is the responsible official for the travel management plan. He said the Forest Service has received the alternative proposal, along with 192 other specific comments about the service’s proposed plan. He said the proposal will be given the same weight as other comments received by the Forest Service as they enter the analysis phase of the process.

“It’s really no different from any other type of comment,” he said. “We’ll evaluate it with the other comments, which could result in additional alternatives being considered as we move forward in the process.”

Robinson said she hopes to see collaboration as the process moves forward.

“We believe in long-term, durable solutions for Ten Lakes,” she said. “There’s room for wilderness and hiking and biking and snowmobiling. We just have to get there as a community, and we’re not there yet.”