Colville Forest Road Proposal Renewed Critics Fear Giving Loggers Access Would End Up Harming Grizzlies, Caribou, Fish
Caribou, grizzlies, bull trout and their advocates are standing between Stimson Lumber Co. and land the company wants to harvest in the Colville National Forest.
A decade-old proposal to build roads in the company’s private in-holdings in the LeClerc watershed is back before the public, this time in the form of an environmental impact statement.
Stimson wants the U.S. Forest Service to build about two miles of new road and reconstruct one road so the company can get to about 2,200 acres of private timber stands, which it recently purchased from Plum Creek Timber Co.
Stimson plans to build another approximately 16 miles of road and harvest 1,577 acres in the next four years.
The harvest would be subject to restrictions set forth in a Conservation Agreement signed in February by the company, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service.
The Forest Service initially permitted the access in 1997, but environmental groups appealed. The Forest Service then ordered the impact statement, which was released last month.
Meanwhile, Stimson has sued the Panhandle National Forest, demanding access to another isolated tract of land in a nearby roadless area.
Opponents of both access plans worry that the road-building and harvesting activities will push both the Selkirk grizzly and caribou populations toward extinction.
Stimson officials disagree.
And while the environmental impact statement concludes that the Colville Forest proposal would likely adversely affect endangered species, a 1997 biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded the proposal would not put those populations in jeopardy or destroy critical habitat.
Dwight Opp, Stimson’s land manager in Newport, Wash., notes that only a small portion of the proposed project involves caribou habitat. As for grizzly bears, timber harvesting isn’t a problem for bears - people are, he said.
“The real threat is poaching,” Opp said. “Nearly all man-caused threats to bear are poaching-related. It’s not timber management that should be at issue here.”
Idaho Fish and Game bear biologist Wayne Wakkinen agreed that timber harvest, per se, doesn’t necessarily harm bears, unless is occurs in the range that bears use in the spring.
“There really isn’t any direct conflict with logging,” he said. But roads built for logging typically bring more people into contact with bears, and more bear fatalities, he said.
While Stimson presses for access to its lands, another private timber company in British Columbia is shopping around for someone to purchase a conservation easement for its critical caribou habitat.
Darkwoods Forestry in British Columbia owns 133,000 acres in the Selkirk mountain range. Some of that is directly north of Stagleap Provincial Park, in prime woodland caribou habitat.
The company is considering preserving it for wildlife - for a price.
“We are in the business of generating income from the property,” said Christian Schabendorf of Darkwoods. “We don’t care if it comes from logging, or wildlife habitat or recreational tourism.
“If they compensate us for the timber lost to us, why not preserve it for caribou?”
The Selkirk’s woodland caribou herd, the last herd of caribou in the Lower 48, is in a precarious position. Last winter’s census found only 34 animals, which travel the Selkirk crest between the U.S. and Canada.
U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologists have concluded that Stimson’s access plan, while it doesn’t directly affect a large amount of caribou habitat, would have a negative affect on the herd. They estimated mortality would increase from 4 to 14 percent.
The Selkirk Conservation Alliance holds up the Darkwoods proposal as a stark contrast to Stimson’s dogged pursuit for access to its inholdings.
“This is a throwback to the old way, when nature was this inexhaustible cornucopia,” said Mark Sprengel, forest program manager for the alliance. “Now we have to adapt to what nature can provide.”
Stimson has resisted Forest Service efforts to negotiate a trade for the lands in question - which is the most common way federal land management agencies acquire private lands.
The biggest stumbling block has been the fact that the company doesn’t own the underlying oil and gas rights, Opp said. Yet, even if it did, Stimson may not be all that interested in trading.
“There’s a risk the land exchange would not go through,” Opp said, citing recent controversies surrounding other land trades. “We’ve been there a long time, and intend to be there a long time. We honestly believe we could manage timber and care for these resources as well.”
Opp points to the conservation agreement as an example of the company’s willingness to do things correctly.
The extensive agreement calls for rotating road closures, maintaining 40 percent cover throughout the project area, protecting streams, restricting harvest during the spring as bears emerge from their dens, and limiting the size of any forest openings. Numerous other conditions are also set forth in the document, such as prohibiting contractors from carrying firearms.
Still, conservationists aren’t pacified.
The agreement is full of compromises that benefit logging, not bears, Sprengel said. For instance, establishing winter logging areas and other “security areas” for three-year increments doesn’t make up for lost core habitat or have a basis in science, he said.
“All these creatures are really living on the knife-edge of survival,” Sprengel said. “We have a legacy here that belongs to all the American people, and we are at great risk of losing it.”
The alliance, along with the Kalispel Tribe, the Lands Council, the Kettle Range Conservation Group, Idaho Conservation League and others are gearing up to challenge the proposal if approved.
“We don’t want to shut things down. We’re part of this community,” said Scott Hall, a forester with the Kalispel Tribe. “Having said that … if (caribou) recovery’s going to happen, that’s where it’s going to be.”
The deadline for comments on the Final environmental impact statement for the Stimson ANILCA Access Easement project must be received by Jan. 5.. Contact the Colville National Forest for a copy of the document or for more information.