Your comments are needed now to object to commercial permits that promote crowding of the Flathead National Forest!
The Flathead National Forest has proposed 23 summertime commercial Special Use Permits that promote over-crowding and the disruption of wildlife!
Please send an email by May 18 to the following addresses:
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Consider making the following points:
1. Thank you for not proposing a permit for guided motorized dirt bike tours in the wildlife rich Krause Basin area, as you did last year. We hope that, through the Krause Basin Collaboration, NEPA and travel planning processes you will ban commercial tours, motorized vehicles and mountain bikes permanently.
2. I object to all of the permits intended to provide motorized recreation as an end in itself. It is one thing to use an automobile to get to a trailhead or lake to then hike, bike or swim. Intentionally promoting motorized dirt bike, ATV, UTV, and watercraft rentals and tours does not work toward the goal of reducing greenhouse emissions. Indeed, each gallon of gasoline burned puts 20 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere! Electric vehicles also have a large carbon footprint due the energy and materials used in their production, charging and maintenance.
3. I object to the permits intended to promote trail running, bike and foot races. These displace others from the trails and promote recreation that increases the risk of surprise encounters between people and bears, which have resulted in the deaths of both. An interagency team has advised against trail running and fast mountain biking at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6ZFZLDXIGzrVERWc0ozaWxDS2M/view
4. I am not necessarily opposed to bike tours or running events that stick to roads open to motorized vehicles, but I object to those that would utilize roads closed to protect wildlife security.
5. I support the Montana Outdoor Science Academy permit for small-group hikes in quiet, unhurried nature. These stand in stark contrast to the majority of the 23 SUPs being proposed, which instead spew forth crowds (including the Highlander 100-person “hiking event”), haste, noise, and exhaust fumes that destroy other peoples’ ability to enjoy their National Forests and the planet.
6. I ask that an Environmental Impact Statement be prepared that looks at the cumulative impacts of the Flathead's SUPs and Rental Cabins expansion program, which are pumping hordes of people into far flung corners of the Forest without adequate concern for fish, wildlife, peace, and quiet.
For more detail on these six points, see our letter here.
Click here and scroll down for the Flathead's description of the proposed SUPs and their maps "Under Analysis."
THANK YOU for taking a few moments to comment on these issues important to the health of people and wildlife!
The Forest Service cannot ask the Krause Basin Collaborative for group/consensus recommendations, only advice from individuals.
This is because the Forest Service is controlling the Collaborative, not the facilitator, and hence cannot ask for agreement or consensus without firstly convening a formal committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
This is to keep federal agencies from manipulating a collaborative, then turning around and claiming any consensus reached was independent of the agency. The FS's own direction on complying with FACA during collaboration states:
1. The FS "may NOT . . . Solicit consensus, agreement, or a common point of view from the public meeting that the agency manages or controls."
2. "Be clear that in public meetings controlled and managed by the agency that the goal of the meeting is to exchange facts or information and listen to opinions. Indicate that the agency cannot ask for agreement or consensus. Keep in mind that the individuals attending a meeting do not constitute a 'team'."
3. "The agency does not control or manage the contractor's [facilitator's] information, the group's membership, or sources of information except to establish by contractual terms what performance or results will fulfill the contract, including any limitations imposed by the agency. The contractor is the only point of contact with the agency."
The FS sought out particpants "commited to building consensus," assembled the Collaborative, and insists on overriding the facilitator and controlling what information it makes available to the Collaborative.
The upshot here is that the FS is refusing to acknowledge that its previous Forest Plan's Amendment 19 promised to close all of the trails in Krause Basin to motorized use and refuses to post those documents on its Krause Basin Collaborative web page. It is even refusing to post the 2017 Biological Opinion on its revised Forest Plan, which uses the same research benchmarks as Amendment 19, meaning that all trails in Krause Basin would need to be closed to motorized use to remove the ongoing harm to grizzly bears, instead promising a new Biological Opinion someday. See this email string for the details on why these documents are important to an informed plan for Krause Basin. Be sure to scroll down to get at the meat of the email string.
Now, the FS is proposing in its 2/16/22 virtual Collaborative meeting to break into small groups to determine "the 1-2 most important recreation issues in Krause Basin," in violation of FACA if the group's and not each individual's most important issues get reported.
In other words, the FS is manipulating the Collaborative to insure participants are not well informed of the FS's past promises to provide adequate wildlife security in Krause Basin and to bar discussion of those promises from the Collaborative.
That is like losing both legs in an auto acccident and having the insurance company say it would rather get a fresh start, can't pay you for your legs because you don't have any, and refuse to let you see the insurance policy that said you would be paid for the loss of your legs!
Participants should insist that their individual recommendations be recorded and respected, not morphed into specious group recommendations/consensus, and that they firstly be provided ALL of the information about the FS's past promises and management of Krause Basin.
This page documents promises made by the Flathead National Forest to close all trails in Krause Basin to motorized use after designating it a Wildlife Management Area and mandating that the trails "not be marked on the ground."
These stand in stark contrast to the Flathead's efforts in its 2018 revised Forest Plan and since to instead designate Krause Basin a Focused Recreation Area, retain motorized use of the trails, mark them on the ground, and permit commercial motorcycle tours on them!
Swan View Coalition's May 12, 2021 Notice of Intent to File Suit in these matters provides a detailed description of these problems, Below are links to the 28 documents cited in the Notice of Intent (or you can click on the Document numbers in the May 12, 2021 NOI, which utilize the same links to access each Document directly). None of these are currently on the Flathead's Krause Basin Collaborative web page.
Document 01, Document 02, Document 03, Document 04, Document 05, Document 06, Document 07, Document 08, Document 09, Document 10, Document 11, Document 12, Document 13, Document 14, Document 15, Document 16, Document 17, Document 18, Document 19, Document 20, Document 21, Document 22, Document 23, Document 24, Document 25, Document 26, Document 27, Document 28.
Swan View Coalition's April 4, 2018 letter outlines its management plan for Krause Basin and it is updated in SVC's Winter-Spring 2021 newsletter.
Swan View Coalition's March 2, 2021 letter and March 22, 2022 letter show the Forest Service where its maps of Krause Basin are in error regarding motor vehicle use.
Our Holidays 2021 newsletter pays tribute to the late Brian Peck, calls for truth to restore hope, previews a guide to how forest ecosystems function, and asks for your help raising $20,000 in December!
Below is our newsletter's table of contents. Click here to view or download our newsletter as a pdf.
A big THANK YOU to those of you who have made donations that support our continuing work!
Won't you join them and make a donation today?
Fish, wildlife and people are counting on us - and you!
A federal judge has ruled in favor of grizzly bears and bull trout in our lawsuit against the 2018 revised Flathead Forest Plan!
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy cited Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in ruling that federal agencies were negligent in abandoning the prior Plan's Amendment 19 road management protections for grizzly bear and bull trout, saying it is "like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet."
Amendment 19's road closure and removal requirements are credited with putting threatened grizzly bears on a path toward recovery. Its requirement that culverts be removed from permanently closed roads is credited with helping protect threatened bull trout from the sediment released by inevitable culvert wash-outs.
The revised Flathead Forest Plan abandoned these requirements, so Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan filed a lawsuit in 2019. Judge Molloy's 6/24/21 Order requires the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider its abandonment of Amendment 19 and to conduct new Endangered Species Act reviews of any new road-building projects.
Our victory should also slow down federal efforts to remove ESA protection from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem grizzly bear population, which is premised on the same abandonment of Amendment 19 road and motorized vehicle management.
Click here for our joint press release with Earthjustice.
Click here for Judge Molloy's Order.
Click here for more background on our lawsuit, first filed in 2019.
WildEarth Guardians and others also filed a lawsuit against the Flathead Forest Plan, which the court combined with ours.
NEWS COVERAGE:
Our Summer-Fall 2021 newsletter reports on our continued advocacy and volunteer work, asks you to tell Glacier Park to end its noisy commercial air tours NOW and announces our October 10 general membership meeting!
Below is our newsletter's table of contents. Click here to view or download our newsletter as a pdf.
A big THANK YOU to those of you who have made donations that support our continuing work!
Won't you join them and make a donation today?
Fish, wildlife and people are counting on us - and you!
Your prompt donation to support our work will be matched/doubled by Cinnabar Foundation!
Be among the first $4,000 in donations and your donation will explode like the fireweed seed shown here!
This is Cinnabar's way of making your donation go even further in helping us keep America's roadless areas roadless, keeping its old-growth forest standing, and restoring its damaged ecosystems through limits on off-road vehicles and the reclamation of excessive roads!
Simply CLICK HERE TO DONATE or send a check to Swan View Coalition at 3165 Foothill Road, Kalispell, MT 59901!
We are currently working hard to insure our Flathead Forest Plan lawsuit victory results in good changes on the ground, not just on paper.
With your help, we kept commercial motorcycle tours out of Krause Basin this year and with your continued help we intend to get them banned permanently!
THANK YOU for your support of our work and for helping us meet Cinnabar's $4,000 challenge/matching grant!
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Please sign up today to help plan recreation management in the wildlife-rich Krause Basin!
The Swan Lake Ranger District has announced it will begin a public planning process and is asking interested people to sign up for it by August 15.
We need lots of individual voices to get the Forest Service to honor its past promises to get motorized vehicles out of Krause Basin and to not turn the area into one more crowded tourist trap!
Email your name, phone number and mailing address to Darlene Bridges at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) . Put "Krause Basin" in the subject line.
See our Winter/Spring Newsletter for more background on recreation management in Krause Basin.
These public lands and wildlife belong to everyone. You don't need to live near Krause Basin to be an "interested participant."
You don't have to commit to participating in the process until the Forest Service describes it more completely after August 15, but you do need to sign up now to have the option and receive further information.
THANK YOU for taking a few moments to speak up for the health of people, wildlife and their habitat!
Logging road landslide into Sullivan Creek bull trout habitat!
Keith Hammer photo.
