National forests propose new restrictions in grizzly habitat

A new grizzly bear protection plan may close some forest roads in northwestern Montana and northern Idaho. The plan responds to a decade-old lawsuit that accused the U.S. Forest Service of ignoring the effect of roads on grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk mountains. While no specific roads are marked for gates or closure, Forest Service officials said the changes would come up for public review over the next eight years. Less than 100 grizzlies are believed to live in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk recovery zones, which cover a combined 4,560 square miles of grizzly habitat. They include bits of northwestern Montana, northern Idaho, northern Washington and southern British Columbia. The access management plan affects parts of three national forests: 1.2 million acres of the Kootenai, 806,000 acres of the Idaho Panhandle, and 163,000 acres of the Lolo. That compares to more than 1,000 bears in the Northern Continental Divide recovery zone extending from Glacier National Park down to the southern tip of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies sued the Forest Service over a 1999 access rule environmentalists believed lacked adequate scientific grounding. Another rule was proposed in 2004, but that was also appealed. A U.S. District Court judge ordered the Forest Service to do a new environmental analysis in 2006, and its final draft version was released on Monday...more