For the week of November 19 - 24, 2003

Forest plans appealed

Sawtooth singled out
for ignoring court order

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"This is a part of the process. I think it’s a positive part. There’s nothing wrong with an appeal."

— ED WALDAPFEL, Sawtooth National Forest spokesman

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Citing a lack of "enforceable standards" in new forest plans for the Sawtooth, Boise and Payette national forests, about a dozen groups last week filed eight separate appeals on the long-term forest planning documents.

"These three forest plans demonstrate why we need a national policy to protect roadless areas," said Craig Gehrke, Idaho director of the Wilderness Society. "Left to individual forests, roadless areas will be whittled away, much as they have been under past forest management."

In one appeal, the Wilderness Society, Idaho Conservation League, Pacific Rivers Council and Idaho Rivers United contend that the forest plans for the three forests do not adequately restrict management impacts in road-free areas, wetlands and important or impaired watersheds.

According to the four groups, there is serious concern that overly aggressive thinning and salvage logging will be conducted under the guise of fire risk reduction.

But Sawtooth National Forest spokesman Ed Waldapfel said he believes the documents are much "tighter" than in previous years.

What’s more, he said that forest plans are intended to be general in nature, similar to a municipal comprehensive plan.

"The revised forest plan does not make any on-the-ground decisions," he said, adding that his opinions won’t play a role in the appeals process.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has 60 days to rule on the appeals, Waldapfel said.

"We can’t really comment either," he said. "It’s up to the chief to make the ruling on the appeal points."

The Sawtooth, Boise and Payete national forests began operating under the new forest management plans in September. Wednesday, Nov. 12, was the deadline to appeal.

In its appeal, the Idaho Sporting Congress said the lack of enforceable standards for maintaining fish and wildlife, and a lack of binding monitoring rules, mean the public cannot effectively challenge the Forest Service’s logging and grazing projects.

"Under the existing plans adopted in the late-1980s, hard, numerical standards for fish, elk habitat, water quality and old growth forests species allowed the public to hold the agency accountable in administrative appeals and in courts," said Ron Mitchell, executive director of the Idaho Sporting Congress.

"To eliminate this legal obstacle to their destructive logging and overgrazing projects, the Forest Service has brazenly taken another illegal action: simply eliminating the protective standards the Idaho Sporting Congress used in court to stop the destruction," Mitchell continued.

While eight appeals may seem like a lot, Waldapfel recalled that there seemed to be more in 1987, when the Sawtooth National Forest last adopted a forest plan.

Waldapfel added that the appeals process is a positive part of the Forest Service’s governing policies.

"This is a part of the process," he said. "I think it’s a positive part. There’s nothing wrong with an appeal."

Some of the groups specifically faulted the new Sawtooth plan for ignoring a court decision on the Sawtooth National Recreation Area that gives wolves and other wildlife precedence over public land livestock grazing.

Finding another bone of contention, the groups said the U.S. Forest Service reduced the number of management indicator species monitored to see how forest practices affect wildlife populations.

"By narrowing its focus to only three species, the Forest Service won’t know what it is doing incorrectly or correctly," said John Robison of the Idaho Conservation league. "Sensitive species such as spotted frogs serve as indicators for what direction Forest Service management is taking these forests."

Pacific Rivers Council representatives said they are particularly concerned about the extent to which the plans tolerate near-term adverse impacts to streams and aquatic species from thinning and salvage logging.

"In these plans, the Forest Service is pulling back from the kinds of specific standards that have always been necessary to protect water quality and fish," said Chris Frissell, Pacific Rivers Council senior scientist. "Streams will be stripped of most of their protection against overly aggressive timber sales and damaging roads, based on flimsy or false claims of reducing fire risk in wildland areas."

 

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