Two environmental groups have filed a second lawsuit over the Iron Mask Project in Montana’s Elkhorn Mountains.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies (AWR) and Native Ecosystems Council (NEC) filed the lawsuit Feb. 28 in the U.S. District Court of Montana. The groups contend the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not fully comply with the original court order.
In response to the new lawsuit, BLM Butte Field Manager Scott Haight said he felt the legal points had already been litigated and pointed out that BLM had prevailed on most aspects of the original lawsuit.
“We feel the BLM addressed the remaining court remand of March 2019 and fully addressed the requirement to supplement the July 2015 (environmental assessment) regarding cumulative impact,” Haight said to the Billings Gazette. “Plaintiffs commented upon the supplemental (environmental assessment), and those comments were addressed in the final (supplemental environmental assessment) completed in September of 2019.”
BLM’s Iron Mask Project requests prescribed burning, cutting juniper and limber pine along the 5,397 acres northwest of Townsend, MT. The first week of March, the BLM announced the Butte Field Office would conduct prescribed burning on 400 acres of the area. The exact timing of the prescribed burn is contingent on snow cover and fuel conditions, but BLM managers hoped to begin in early March. However, the burn window will close sometime in the following six weeks.
Background
The public was involved throughout the development of the Iron Mask Planning Area environmental assessment (EA). Public participation started in December 2012 with a notice mailed to 28 individuals, organizations, and tribes. Ten responses to the letter included comments on travel and access; public involvement; recreation; wildlife, habitat and vegetation restoration; noxious weeds; livestock and forage reserve allotment; cultural resources; and the local economy. These comments were used to help BLM identify issues and alternatives for accomplishing management goals and objectives when they prepared the June 2014 EA for public comment.
On June 4, 2014, the BLM issued the Iron Mask Planning Area EA for public comment, along with an unsigned Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). Following the release of the draft EA and unsigned FONSI, an open house was held in Townsend, MT, to collect public comments and answer questions about the EA. The Final Iron Mask Planning Area EA and FONSI were completed on July 1, 2015.
The EA for the Iron Mask Planning Area included planning for a roughly 5,600-acre property the agency acquired through the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Among the plans were about 1,000 acres of prescribed burning and cutting conifer trees on about 4,200 acres. The project also called for a “forage reserve” grazing system, which would allow livestock grazing in cases where other grazing allotments were unavailable due to circumstances such as drought or wildfire.
In Jan. 2017, the BLM Butte Field Office issued a decision to grant a grazing permit that will expire Feb. 2027 outlined in 43 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) § 4160 and identifies the selected alternative and states the terms and conditions, incorporated into grazing authorizations for the allotment. The requirements include no grazing within any fenced spring or riparian area or vegetative study enclosure. No salt and/or mineral blocks shall be placed within a quarter mile of livestock water, springs, meadows, or streams on public lands.
The BLM expected the project to move forward following additional analysis.
AWR and NEC filed the first lawsuit in March 2018, alleging the BLM did not adequately consider the environmental consequences of the project and asked for a full analysis to be completed. The groups also asserted the grazing leases conflict with the wildlife management unit.
The groups alleged they did not take into consideration the effects of the project in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service’s Johnny Crow project, which neighbors the Iron Mask area. In 2015, the BLM EA found no significant impact on the area and, “[The decision] improves land health and enhances biodiversity, addresses visitor use needs while continuing to provide opportunities for livestock grazing.”
U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters ruled March 2019 in favor of the environmental groups on one of their five legal challenges to BLM’s proposed management in the Iron Mask area northwest of Townsend. Watters ordered both the project be halted and the agency perform the additional EA. She stated BLM failed to analyze the “cumulative effects” of past and future projects in the area, and the overall impacts of those projects along with Iron Mask.
However, Watters did rule for the BLM on other aspects of the lawsuit. She found that preceding documents dealt with many of the underlying legal challenges, and the groups should have sued at that point to challenge the cutting, burning and grazing. She also found that the groups failed to demonstrate Iron Mask ran contrary to the requirements of the management plan.
Haight said the agency respected the judge’s decision in 2019 and was deciding the next steps on complying with it. The BLM expected the project to move forward following additional analysis. — Charles Wallace, WLJ correspondent
