AWR knows little about forest bill -- but a lot about lawsuits

by DAVID ALLEN

...You don’t have to look far to find Garrity’s motive. The Helena Independent Record published an article last year about the high level of litigation in the United States Forest Service (USFS) Northern Region. The USFS revealed over half the region’s timber harvest was encumbered by litigation. The leading litigant was AWR—with 212 lawsuits against the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and US Fish and Wildlife Service since 1989. The General Accountability Office revealed AWR filed more appeals of USFS projects than any other organization in the nation—putting them on par with Earthjustice and the Sierra Club—which collected millions of taxpayer dollars suing the government.

...The AWR playbook is always the same. Last month they stopped a fire fuel reduction project near Red Lodge and a collaborative stewardship project near the Clark Fork River. Both lawsuits claimed the USFS failed to address economics and impacts to certain species. Of course, they also seek attorney fees.

Undoing the work of collaborative projects is nothing new to this group. Three years ago, AWR got a District Judge to stop a timber sale in the Swan Valley because they felt it didn’t include enough lynx habitat analysis. The project was endorsed by wilderness groups, state agencies and two retired Forest Service chiefs. Even though the plan included 10 years of lynx research and the court admitted the project “complied with lynx critical habitat standards” it still ruled for additional analysis.

 

...Montanans should be alarmed current laws allow groups like this to profit from obstruction. The funds to pay AWR don’t come from designated agency budgets—they come from individual forests—taking away tax dollars that could be used for important projects that benefit all of us instead of just Garrity and his attorneys.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation suggests using these funds to improve forest health and wildlife habitat, and to create more access and recreation opportunities on public lands. Frivolous lawsuits have nearly eliminated logging from forest management. Forests have suffered and much of the current wildfires are the result.

David Allen is president and CEO of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

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