Our Summer-Fall 2022 newsletter examines two major public relations blunders by the Flathead National Forest as it attempts to force recreational development on a public that is tired of seeing its public lands turned into playgrounds for the rich and racy! We also announce the resumption of our biweekly Swan Range Community Potlucks and Music Jam Sessions - and our Annual Membership Meeting to be held November 20.
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!
The Flathead National Forest is attempting to approve a mega-expansion of the Holland Lake Lodge facilities on public land without informed public input and with no Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement. Tell the Flathead NOW to back up and start again!
--- UPDATE 11/23/22: According to the Missoulian, the Flathead has sent POWDR Corp. back to the drawing board to fix its Master Development Plan, but POWDR intends to resubmit its MDP largely unchanged and the Flathead has not rescinded the current Special Use Permit - which says on its face that it can't be transferred to POWDR.
--- UPDATE 10/15/22: According to the Daily Montanan, the Flathead received over 6,500 public comments, with 99% of them opposed to the mega-expansion! Stay tuned, the Flathead has not given up on this illconceived idea!
--- UPDATE 9/15/22: The public comment period has been extended to October 7, but it is still important to ask for a full 60-day comment period and make the other points listed below or in our latest comment letter.
Here is a good article about how public comment is running so far and you can see for yourself at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//ReadingRoom?Project=61746 where there are currently over 2,000 comments, mostly against this mega-expansion! The Flathead is also holding another public meeting, this time at the Seeley Lake Elementary School on Tuesday, October 4, from 5:30 - 7:30pm; or you can join the meeting online ---
The new development will be managed by the Lodge's joint venture partner POWDR, "an adventure lifestyle company" based in Park City, Utah, and owner of Park City Mountain Resort. The mega-development would be allowed under a Special Use Permit for 15 acres of public land, will dwarf the historic lodge and will destroy the rustic natural character of Holland Lake and the upper Swan Valley! New constructed facilities would include:
1. Bob Marshall Lodge (28 rooms, two-story, 13,000 square feet)
2. 10 lake cabins (650 square feet each)
3. 16 smaller studio cabins (250 square feet each)
4. New Welcome Center (2,000 square feet, single-story building) for check in and retail
5. The Mission Mountains Restaurant (3,000 square feet) would be constructed adjacent to the Old Lodge, separated by a breezeway. The proposed Mission Mountains Restaurant would have indoor seating capacity for 100 guests. Outdoor seating would also be available for an additional 30 guests when the weather allows for it. The new kitchen will be designed to serve three times as many meals as the current kitchen.
6. Small watersport building (400 square feet)
7. New support buildings which would include a maintenance building (2,000 square feet) and employee housing (2,000 square feet)
This mega-expansion was announced September 1, right before Labor Day weekend, but the Forest Service wants public comments by September 21! Please insist on adequate time for public review and on adequate environmental review via the Flathead's electronic comment form at
https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//CommentInput?Project=61746 . If that form does not work for you, then send an email directly to Project Leader Michele Mavor at michele.mavor@usda.gov .
Here are some points you might want to make:
1. The Holland Lake Lodge Master Development Plan was not made publicly available on the Flathead's web site until September 6. The public needs plenty of time to review this 36-page document and the Forest Service's 16-page "scoping" document.
2. The scoping document is dead wrong to presume this mega-development can be "categorically excluded" from the prior preparation of an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement. Such shortcuts are intended for constructing an outhouse or a tool shed, not a destination resort!
3. Before Big Mountain was allowed to expand its ski area in 1995, the Flathead rightly prepared an Environmental Impact Statement on whether it should be allowed under that ski area Special Use Permit.
4. Before the Flathead allowed the Big Mountain ski area to expand ski lift facilities in Hellroaring Basin in 2019, it prepared an Environmental Assessment to be certain it should be allowed under the Special Use Permit.
5. The Flathead must provide 60 days for public comments on these Holland Lake "scoping" documents and then prepare an Environmental Impact Statement that fully assesses the potential impacts of this mega-development on this historic, rustic area and its natural ecosystems.
The Flathead is holding a public information meeting at the Holland Lake Lodge grounds from 5 - 7pm on Thursday, September 8th.
The Flathead's Holland Lake Lodge Facility Expansion Project documents can be viewed and downloaded at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=61746 .
You can read our initial comment letter here and our more detailed comment letter here.
THANK YOU for taking a few moments to insure there is adaquate public involvement and environmental review of this proposed mega-expansion!
VICTORY UPDATE: On 6/28/24, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen ruled largely in our favor, ruling Fish and Wildlife Service's revised Biological Opinion and the Forest Service's reliance upon it both unlawful! His ruling confirms that research still supports the full reclamation of logging roads, including the removal of their culverts, in order to protect threatened grizzly bears and bull trout. Read more about this important decision in our Summer 2024 newsletter!
Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan are in the process of filing new lawsuits against the revised Flathead Forest Plan's building of logging roads in threatened grizzly bear and bull trout habitat!
In response to our initial 2019 lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on 6/24/21 ordered FWS to redo its 2017 Biological Opinion approving the revised Forest Plan because it had abandoned key requirements of the prior Forest Plan's Amendment 19. He did not, however, order the Forest Service to rewrite similarly flawed portions of its Forest Plan.
FWS issued its revised Biological Opinion on 2/16/22, which failed to require the protections afforded grizzly bear and bull trout under the prior Forest Plan Amendment 19.
Earthjustice on 5/31/22 filed a new lawsuit on our behalf against FWS and its revised Biological Opinion. Here is the news coverage in the Flathead Beacon, Missoula Current and Hungry Horse News.
Earthjustice on 7/19/22 filed on our behalf the required 60-day notice that we intend to sue the Forest Service for once again relying on FWS's flawed Biological Opinion to abandon the Amendment 19 road management program in its revised Forest Plan. We will file the actual lawsuit after the 60 days advance notice expires.
We are more than grateful for Earthjustice and its continued excellent representation of us, the bears and the trout in these lawsuits.
Click here for more information about our initial 2019 lawsuit against the revised Flathead Forest Plan and click here for more information about Judge Molloy's initial ruling.
And please DONATE NOW to support our work and the continuation of these important lawsuits. Act quickly and Cinnabar Foundation will match the first $4,000 in donations that we receive, doubling your impact!
Our Winter-Spring 2022 newsletter takes a sobering look at how, contrary to the way forest ecosystems function and the need to keep carbon stored in trees to combat climate warming, the government and industry instead want to log/thin all the forests they can get their hands on while building all the more logging roads to get it done!
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 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:
anthony.butterfield@usda.gov
charles.james@usda.gov
william.wehunt@usda.gov
royelynn.warren@usda.gov
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: Read Report
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!
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!
www.mountainjournal.org and www.johnpotterstudio.com.
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 comments-northern-flathead-swan-lake@usda.gov . 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!
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