Harvest threatens water, environmentalists argue

Environmentalists filed another lawsuit against the Kootenai National Forest on Tuesday, hoping to stop a 12.5 million-board-foot timber sale they believe would pollute an already degraded stream.

At almost the same time, not knowing a lawsuit had been filed, the Forest Service awarded a contract for the Garver timber sale to Riley Creek Lumber Co. - which bid $1.3 million over the advertised price of $230,000.

Filed by Alliance for the Wild Rockies and The Lands Council, the complaint seeks to stop the Garver sale on grounds it violates the Clean Water Act and destroys habitat for species that depend on old-growth trees.

The groups used a similar lawsuit to stop the Lolo National Forest from logging in areas burned by wildfires during the summer of 2000.

In that case, environmentalists successfully argued that the logging would degrade water quality in streams identified as "water-quality impaired" by the state of Montana.

Until the state of Montana sets "total maximum daily load" figures for the streams, the Forest Service cannot adequately judge how much additional sediment the streams can handle, the lawsuit said.

Federal District Judge Don Molloy agreed, shutting down all post-burn logging until TMDL figures are available.

In the Garver sale, the at-risk stream is the West Fork of the Yaak River, which is also listed as water-quality impaired.

Logging caused the West Fork's problems, and more logging will make them worse, said Michael Garrity, executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies.

"It is exactly the same issue as in the Lolo," Garrity said. "Instead of wasting the court's time and money, the Kootenai should just follow the judge's ruling."

(The Forest Service has appealed Molloy's decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.)

At Kootenai forest headquarters, Supervisor Bob Castaneda did not know a lawsuit had been filed until contacted by the Missoulian. He quickly and vigorously defended his staff, which had just awarded the timber sale to Riley Creek Lumber.

"Ever since the Lolo decision, our approach has been to have a good analysis of the watershed and to use best management practices," Castaneda said. "We think through some restoration efforts and by following BMPs, we can improve the current watershed condition."

Would the logging pollute the West Fork of the Yaak? "No," Castaneda said. "I just don't agree with their statement. We worked very closely with the Yaak Valley Forest Council and used a lot of their recommendations in making the decision. They worked closely with us."

The Kootenai forest did a number of water-quality surveys in the Yaak this past summer, he said, and the preliminary results are encouraging.

"They're telling us the water quality is much better than what the state suggested," Castaneda said.

He also rebutted the lawsuit's contention that the timber sale would cut into the Kootenai forest's declining base of old-growth trees.

The forest is, in fact, staying out of designated old-growth areas, Castaneda said.

In the lawsuit, the Alliance and the Lands Council cite the Forest Service's own environmental impact statement, which said the Garver sale would likely have adverse affects on every sensitive old-growth species in the Kootenai: fishers, wolverines, flammulated owls, black-backed woodpeckers, northern goshawks and others.

"It is time for the Forest Service and the Bush administration to start cleaning up our streams and protecting our wildlife instead of subsidizing timber corporations and breaking the law," Garrity said.

News of the lawsuit was a double-blow to Jim Hurst, co-owner of Owens and Hurst Lumber Co. in Eureka. He, too, had bid on the Garver sale but lost out to the north Idaho mill.

Now, he said, the lawsuit has the potential to make things even worse for lumbermen.

"It's just more of the same," Hurst said. "Nothing coming from the environmental community would surprise me anymore."

Another lawsuit filed earlier this year by The Ecology Center stopped several timber sales on the Kootenai forest, some of which were bound for Hurst's Eureka mill.

The Kootenai's timber sale program has decreased by 75 percent since 1989.

Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com

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