Our Fall Newsletter reports on the Forest Service turned politically partisan, Big Tech gobbling up public resources, progress on road closure monitoring, how we can turn lemon impediments into lemonade, and our upcoming membership meeting November 16!
It also reminds you that a generous anonymous donor will match your donations up to $15,000 by the end of this year! Please help us meet this challenge and double your donations!
Below is the 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 us us - and you!
Our Summer Newsletter reports on two citizen oversight victories, asks you to comment on Trump's plan to rescind roadless land protections by Sept 19, and announces Keith Hammer has been given FWN's 2025 “Activist of the Year Award!”
It also reminds you that Cinnabar Foundation will once again match your donations up to $4,000 this summer! Please help us finish up this challenge!
Below is the 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 us us - and you!
Your comments convinced DNRC to save this hemlock forest in Krause Basin. We need to hold DNRC to its new promise that it won't log hemlock forests south of Krause Basin either!
DNRC's is proposing more logging and thinning within, north, and south of the Bigfork Nordic ski trails in its Foothills North Project.
Please email DNRC's Mark Slaten ( mark.slaten@mt.gov ) by July 3 and consider making the following points:
1. We are pleased to see that DNRC has brought forward a number of the issues raised by the public in comments on the 2023 Foothills Restoration Project - and has proposed measures to address them.
2. We appreciate that DNRC intends to not thin or log “stands that are majority western hemlock.” We are disappointed, however, that “mitigations to restore or maintain old growth” could be applied in such hemlock stands. This is too often a euphemism for thinning in old growth, so we ask that you simply leave all mature forests alone.
3. We appreciate and hope you take seriously your commitment to “ensure that harvest activities do not create new opportunities for illegal motorized access.”
4. While we appreciate your proposed three stages of weed treatments, the establishment and proliferation of weeds is best avoided by absolutely minimizing the amount of land disturbed by logging and road building equipment and by enforcing against motorized use of already existing roads.
5. We appreciate your efforts to minimize conflicts between logging activities and the very popular Bigfork Nordic ski trails.
Click here to read or download DNRC's Foothills North Project proposal.
Click here to read Swan View's 6/9/25 comment letter, which documents lots of reasons not to log or thin mature forests and includes photos of the kinds of damage that such logging, road building and ensuing ATV abuse entails.
Click here to read Swan View's 6/23/25 comment letter outlining Administrative Rules of Montana requirements that DNRC “retain . . . rare or unique habitat elements” like hemlock forests and limit its management activities to a “maximum management period of four years, followed by a mandatory rest period of at least eight years” to protect the continued use of habitat by grizzly bears and other wildlife.
Your comments are due July 3. Best send them today so you can't forget!
Thank you for taking a few minutes to let DNRC know you want hemlock and other mature forests left unscathed along the Swan Range foothills!
Our Winter-Spring Newsletter describes how the Trump administration is ordering a 25% increase in Forest Service logging and furthering the agency's efforts to shut the public and the courts out of the public land management process!
It also reports on the increasing use of Categorical Exclusions from the preparation of an Environmental Assessment when the Forest Service issues permits for the private commercial occupancy and use of public lands.
It also announces that Cinnabar Foundation will once again match your donations up to $4,000 this summer!
Below is our 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 comments are needed BY MAY 14 as the Forest Service attempts to grant new owners of Holland Lake Lodge a 20-year permit to occupy public lands - without first revealing what they intend to do there!
Please register your comments by May 14 via the FS comment form at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=67937 .
If that form is not working, simply email your comments to Ranger Chris Dowling at Christopher.Dowling@usda.gov .
Please consider making the following points and any of your own:
1. The new owners have said they need to expand the business in order to make a profit. Don't issue the permit applicant a 20-year permit until it releases a Master Development Plan and it has undergone agency and public review and comment!
2. Do not try to pass the new owner's permit off as simply a “renewal” of the previous owner's 2017 permit. Under the previous owner's permit the Lodge fell into disrepair, the business became unprofitable, and the sewer and sewage lagoon failed.
3. Show the public the new owner's 2025 Operating Plan. You instead showed us the previous owner's Operating Plan, which is irrelevant.
4. You have acknowledged that the Lodge cannot provide full services until the sewage lagoon, which is leaking, is repaired. The repair, sizing and potential replacement of the sewage system must be a part of this permit process, not left up to taxpayers later.
5. Quit trying to shield the applicant and future plans from public scrutiny. Lay all the cards out on the table, THEN ask the public what it thinks as you prepare an Environmental Assessment in order to determine if a more intensive Environmental Impact Statement is needed to address significant impacts.
6. You cannot use a Categorical Exclusion from preparing an Environmental Assessment to break these connected and cumulative actions down into smaller baby steps. The people who revere this area do not want to be displaced along with the fish and wildlife as an expanding Lodge provides its wealthy clients “a range of recreation opportunities in forest settings consistent with visitor expectations!”
For the details and sources that back up these bullet points, see our recent comment letter here.
To read the Forest Service's version of what it is up to, visit its project page here.
Thank you for taking a few moments by May 14 to let the Forest Service know what you think of this proposal.
Fish, wildlife and people are counting on you!
Your comments are needed by April 6 on a logging project proposed all along the Swan Range from Columbia Falls to Swan Lake!
This “fuels reduction” logging and thinning will affect key wildlife habitats and favored recreation spots all along the Swan Range!
So please look closely at the detailed maps on the East Valley Project web page, in the Public Scoping folder, then submit your comments here by April 6!
Here are some suggested points to make, along with your personal comments about your favorite habitats for wildlife and people:
1. Thinning 2,541 acres of forest will allow more sunlight and wind to reach the forest floor, drying out the vegetation and increasing the rate at which fire spreads, according to Firesafe Montana and other research documents.
2. While you don’t intend to build any permanent new roads, you nonetheless propose to log and/or “reduce fuels” on 109 acres of Inventoried Roadless Area, 135 acres of streamside zones, and 12 acres of old growth forest. Standing and fallen wood, alive and dead, is critical to the function of forest ecosystems and the sequestration of carbon. It should not be removed under the guise of “fuels reduction.” Thank you for not proposing fuels reduction in the exceptional hemlock forests of Krause Basin!
3. Many of the roads to be used for the proposed thinning and logging are closed to motor vehicles and yet are routinely trespassed by them. Thinning trees increases the ease with which motor vehicles detour around road closure devices and should not occur in those areas. Furthermore, while you state logging use of these closed roads would likely occur “during the grizzly bear winter denning season,” you fail to use the shorter January 1 – February 15 denning dates determined by numerous grizzly bear experts and the U.S. District Court in Missoula.
4. Your proposed logging “would result in six new even age openings over 40 acres,” the maximum recommended by the National Forest Management Act. This would create large zero-age areas devoid of trees, unacceptably reduce essential hiding cover for wildlife, and create big eyesores on this scenic backdrop to the Flathead Valley!
5. Your intention to use a Categorical Exclusion from the preparation of an Environmental Assessment means “this would be the only comment period for the project,” even though your staff has yet to conduct “an analysis of potential environmental effects in the coming months.” Moreover, you would not allow the public to formally Object to any portion of the project. Please instead prepare an EA, if not an Environmental Impact Statement, under normal procedures so the public can read and comment on the environmental effects that you find and try to reach some common ground where there are disagreements.
If you would rather mail your comments, you can find the address on our initial comment letter and, if the comment submission form above fails to work for you, you can email your comments to Ranger Dowling here.
Our second comment letter provides more details and documentation to support the points made above and in our initial letter.
Thank you for taking a few moments by April 6 to let the Forest Service know your thoughts on its proposal - it looks like it may be your only chance!
Your comments are needed today to stop the commercial overcrowding of the Flathead's Wild and Scenic Rivers!
The Flathead National Forest has released its Proposed Action for revising its Wild and Scenic River Management Plan - and it wants your comments by February 7, 2025!
The Proposed Action would nearly quadruple the number of commercial rafting and fishing service days (1 client for 1 day) from the current 35,713 to 136,000 on the non-Wilderness Middle Fork alone!
Please let the Forest Service know you want the vast majority of the allocated use to be for everyday citizens, not commercial river outfitters - and that you don't want the already-excessive use levels expanded!
You can submit your comments via the portal at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=56536 . If the portal isn't working, simply email your comments to christopher.prew@usda.gov or mail them to the Flathead Forest Supervisor's Office, 650 Wolfpack Way, Kalispell, MT 59901.
Here are some suggested points to make:
- Actual commercial use in the past five years on the Middle Fork has been twice the permitted level of 35,713 service days. This cannot be rewarded by quadrupling the permitted service days!
- The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act requires the FS to protect and enhance the river's Outstanding Remarkable Values, such as uncrowded recreational opportunities, which have already been degraded. Permitted commercial use must be reduced!
- Strict use and party size limits must be set, monitored and immediately enforced through management actions clearly defined in the Plan.
- Support the 60db recreation noise limit, the ban on dogs and stopping of boats near the Essex Goat Lick, and ask that drones be banned and other measures implemented to avoid displacing wildlife from the Wild and Scenic corridors.
For more ideas and details, Swan View's comment letter is here.
Thank you for taking a few minutes to help provide your Wild and Scenic Rivers the protection they deserve!
Our Holidays Newsletter gives thanks for what we've accomplished in 2024, but looks hard at the challenges posed in 2025!
It also announces a generous donor will match your donations up to $15,000 before the end of the year!
Below is our 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!
Our Fall newsletter provides a quick update on activities in Krause Basin, announces our annual membership meeting, and offers you the last chance to have your donation doubled by Cinnabar Foundation!
Below is our 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!
Our Summer newsletter details two recent victories on the Flathead National Forest for wildlife, in court and on-the-ground! A third federal judge has now ruled that the government broke the law when it abandoned Flathead Forest Plan requirements that roads must be fully reclaimed and culverts removed to lower road densities to protect grizzly bears and bull trout. And a half-dozen illegal user-created trails in Krause Basin have now been blocked and reclaimed.
We also announce that Cinnabar Foundation will once again match your donations up to $4,000! So double your donation today!
Below is our 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!
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