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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Wildlife Backers, Developers Clash Over Road Requests Conservationists Say Forest Service Ok Would Be Favor For Private Landowners

Associated Press

A proposal for several short roads through prime wildlife habitat in the Targhee National Forest has provoked a flurry of questions about whether the agency should help landowners reach their land.

Conservation groups and at least one resident are protesting what they contend is a public favor for private developers, potentially at the cost of wildlife. But landowners say the road easements are necessary.

“People are not going to buy a piece of land if they can’t get into it,” said Dorothy MacKay, a road easement applicant.

She and her family want permission to build a 0.6-mile branch off a Forest Service road leading to the edge of a 600-acre parcel about 12 miles east of Ashton. Without it, her family will have trouble selling the property, MacKay said.

Developers say they face the same problem on adjacent land where they want to sell one to four housing lots. They hope to build a half-mile gravel road running through Forest Service land along an old, grown-over dirt road.

The Forest Service said in a recently completed environmental study that the road plan would be the best solution to the access problem. Several possible alternative routes through nearby private land have been dismissed as too expensive, more damaging than the roads through public lands or blocked by landowners unwilling to have a road run through their property.

In any case, a Forest Service official said there is little the agency can do about the larger environmental issues involved.

“It’s not going to stop development,” Ashton District Ranger Adrienne Keller said.

But Marv Hoyt of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition said that does not mean the Forest Service has to give development a helping hand. “Once the Forest Service gives them access, they are in fact helping the developers add value to the property,” he said.

The proposed roads would run through prime grizzly bear habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers the area Situation One, the highest designation of land under a plan to rebuild populations of the endangered animal. The Forest Service study says the land also is home to moose and great gray owls, as well as elk during the winter and calving season.

“In the long term, we lose another chunk of habitat, not just on the private property but on the forest,” Hoyt said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service also has questioned why the Forest Service would allow a road unless it is required by law, particularly with a new Targhee management plan calling for reduced roads in some areas.

The Forest Service is accepting public comment on its environmental study of the road proposal before making a final decision. The comment deadline is Monday.