Agency’S Timber Data Incorrect, Analyst Says

An environmental group says it can prove the Clearwater National Forest has far less old growth timber remaining than is required by law.

A detailed analysis of the Forest Service’s data shows the agency is including 3,600 acres of heavily logged land in its old growth inventory, Larry McLaud of the Idaho Conservation League says. That puts the Clearwater well below the requirements that a minimum of 10 percent. The dearth of ancient trees deprives wildlife of the cover they need to survive, he says.

The Forest Service agrees it has to leave 10 percent of the land in old growth. But the agency sharply disagrees that its old growth inventory is 3,600 acres in error.

The analyst that produced the study for the Conservation League “made some fundamental mistakes in how she used the data,” said Doug Gochnour, planning officer on the Clearwater Forest. The Forest Service is asking for more specifics on where the Conservation League claims it’s in error, but hasn’t yet gotten answers.

Meanwhile, “we are confident that the old growth status report we produced last fall was accurate and the best available information anyone has,” Gochnour said.

The Conservation League filed documents in U.S. District Court in Missoula recently making the charges that the Clearwater Forest doesn’t know how much old growth has been logged and how much remains. That is one key issue in a complex lawsuit, filed in 1997, covering several disagreements over timber management on the Clearwater.

The Conservation League and other plaintiffs, including the Ecology Center, are pushing for an injunction on logging on the Clearwater until the suit is resolved.

Staff writer Ken Olsen contributed to this report.