Environmental groups filed suit against the federal government in early June, challenging the redefinition of secure habitat for grizzly bears in Montana’s Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.
The lawsuit targets the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) approval of a logging project coined the Larabee Hat Vegetation Project, alleging the agencies obscured the project’s impact on the species.
Western Environmental Law Center filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana on behalf of Native Ecosystems Council, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Council on Wildlife and Fish on June 2.
“It makes no ecological or financial sense to degrade irreplaceable, untrammeled native forest into failed tree plantations and marginal pastureland for subsidized livestock at great taxpayer expense,” said Steve Kelly with Council on Wildlife and Fish.
Project details
The Larabee Hat Vegetation Project was approved last summer as a proposal to treat forest and rangeland and implement restoration activities, according to the USFS. The project covers about 43,200 acres, with 89% of the project area comprising lands administered by USFS.
Approximately 18,000 acres are set for treatment using a combination of commercial timber harvest, non-commercial thinning and fuels treatments. These treatments will “restore forest tree species and structural diversity, reduce incidence of insect damage in affected stands, and provide for social and economic benefits,” the environmental assessment read.
There are also four active cattle grazing allotments within the project area.
“Range vegetation would be expected to benefit and move towards desired condition under the proposed action due to a higher quantity and quality of forage, more areas to graze, less livestock concentration, and increasing riparian corridor resiliency through watershed improvements,” according to the environmental assessment.
Lawsuit challenge
The Larabee Hat project sits in the Divide Geographic Area, part of the public lands corridor connecting the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear recovery zones.
The lawsuit centers on how the agencies redefine “secure habitat” for grizzly bears. The secure habitat refers to areas free from development large enough for a bear to meet its daily foraging needs. A 2,500-acre minimum secure habitat patch size was utilized when the USFS and USFWS approved the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest’s Forest Plan in 2021.
The environmental groups said the agencies “quietly reversed course” last spring by redefining secure habitat outside the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem grizzly recovery zone as 1 acre.
“There is no scientific support for one-acre ‘secure habitat’ patches,” said David Woodsmall, attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “The agencies simply redefined the problem away.”
The groups allege the agencies did not engage in any environmental analysis of the direct, indirect or cumulative effects of the change to grizzly bear secure habitat as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
In the environmental assessment, the agencies said grizzly bears would likely find project activities a barrier to movement and they would need to select alternate travel routes. However, the agency noted that “while there may be some short-term disturbance effects occurring in the area while project activities are ongoing, the end result and long-term outcome of treatment would be improved foraging opportunities for bears, with cover being retained in a mosaic pattern of forested habitat types, forest age classes, and forest structural classes.”
The agencies contended that impacts to secure habitat would be temporary, and most proposed activities would occur outside of grizzly bear secure habitat.
Ultimately, the agencies determined the effects of the project were not considered to be NEPA significant to grizzly bears. The environmental groups allege otherwise.
“We won a court case on a similar issue last year in which the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service tried to shrink the definition of secure habitat for grizzlies from 2,500 acres to 10 acres, which is ridiculous for these wide-ranging bears,” said Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.
The lawsuit asks the court to vacate the Larabee Hat project, along with the biological opinions for the Helena Forest Plan and Larabee Hat project, and remand the matter back to the agencies to comply with NEPA and the Endangered Species Act. — Anna Miller Fortozo, WLJ managing editor
