NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 13, 2003
Contacts: Michael Garrity, 406-459-5936;
Marc Fink, 208-342-2216

AWR Files Suit against Forest Service for Material Breach of Agreement to Protect Grizzly Bear Habitat

MISSOULA-- In a brief filed in Federal District Court in Missoula, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies (AWR) challenged the U.S. Forest Service for its failure to provide new habitat protections for the endangered Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk grizzly bear populations on the Kootenai, Lolo and Idaho Panhandle National Forests.

AWR had earlier sued the Forest Service, resulting in a March 2001 "Stipulation for Order Dismissing Action" (Settlement Agreement) in which the Forest Service agreed to amend the Forest Plans for the Idaho Panhandle and Kootenai National Forests. This process would address grizzly bear management, and specifically the high road densities on these forests. The Forest Service agreed to issue a Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by February 1, 2002, and work "expeditiously" to issue a Record of Decision. Federal District Judge Donald Molloy approved the agreement on March 20, 2001, retaining jurisdiction "for enforcement against material breach of this agreement."

The Forest Service added the Lolo National Forest to the analysis and completed the EIS in March 2002, but over twenty months later, has still not signed a Record of Decision or finalized the Amendments. AWR has repeatedly been told it is expected soon, but it has been continuously delayed. Meanwhile, the road densities on these national forests remain exceedingly high, activities such as timber sales and new road building continue to be authorized within grizzly bear habitat, and grizzly bears continue to die. AWR seeks the Court's intervention to insure that the Plan Amendments are completed in an expeditious manner. The Alliance is represented in the matter by Marc Fink, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center in Boise, Idaho.

"Litigation is always our last resort for conflict resolution," said AWR executive director Michael Garrity. "We thought we had a deal, but the Forest Service has delayed for almost two years. By failing to reduce the massive network of roads, the Forest Service is directly threatening the grizzly bear in the Cabinet-Yaak/Selkirk with extinction."

In 1999, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) estimated only 46 bears remained in the Selkirk Mountains, and just 30-40 in the Cabinet-Yaak. Due to small numbers and continued impacts to habitat, FWS concluded in 1999 these two populations are in danger of extinction. When populations become too small, they can enter into an irreversible decline, known as an "extinction vortex." Scientists have found that extinction risk for grizzly bears becomes severe whenever populations are less than fifty.

Much grizzly bear research has focused on the impacts of roads and road densities on grizzly bear habitat use and survival. Grizzly bears generally avoid open and closed roads, resulting in habitat loss, and forest roads may represent five times the mortality risk compared to remote, back-country areas.

Over the past twenty years, 77% of the human-caused grizzly bear mortalities in the Cabinet-Yaak/Selkirk occurred within 500 meters of an open road. The most serious threat to grizzly bear survival is the over 26,000 mile road network on the Kootenai, Idaho Panhandle, Lolo, and Colville National Forests. The other two grizzly bear recovery areas in the Northern Rockies, the Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide regions, have far different characteristics which explain why they have more grizzly bears. Not only are they greater in size, they have large, permanent and un-shifting core areas of National Park, Wilderness Areas, and adjacent roadless areas, where grizzly bears are relatively secure from human intrusion. In contrast, the Cabinet-Yaak/Selkirk lacks the required large, permanent and un-shifting core areas. The Forest Service instead designates small, temporary core areas that it constantly shifts to accommodate logging and other activities.

The FWS goal for human-caused mortality in the Cabinet-Yaak/Selkirk is zero. Over the past ten years there has been an average of 2.0 mortalities per year in the Cabinet-Yaak and 2.5 in the Selkirk. Division into minimum population estimates yields annual mortality percentages of 6.7%, and 5.4%, respectively. Recent trends are even more alarming, as twenty-eight grizzly bears have died since the 1999 FWS found these populations are in danger of extinction.

Moreover, actual mortalities are significantly higher than known mortalities, since dead bears are seldom found unless they were radio-collared. Known human-caused mortality may represent only 50 percent of total human-caused mortality. Thus, total annual mortality in the Cabinet-Yaak/Selkirk regions may be as high as 10%, a prescription for almost certain extinction. In fact, the most recently available FWS estimates for the Cabinet-Yaak/Selkirk confirm negligible or negative population growth.

AWR maintains the continued high rate of mortalities and negative population trends demonstrate current management of grizzly bear habitat in the Cabinet-Yaak/Selkirk remains inadequate. The likelihood of these small grizzly bear populations surviving over any reasonable time frame is very small - practically zero. The far more likely scenario is that these populations will go demographically, or functionally, extinct, unless prompt action is taken.

Garrity, a professional economist, said, "The Forest Service can create many jobs by restoring this area rather than building more roads in this critical grizzly bear habitat."