Eco-terrorists triggered.
Via Helena IR:
Following litigation and wildfires in 2017, the U.S. Forest Service announced a new proposal Friday for logging and prescribed burning near Lincoln.
The latest proposal for the Stonewall Vegetation project northwest of Lincoln calls for about 1,400 acres of logging, thinning and prescribed burns. The project’s goals include reducing fuels while providing logs for commercial harvest.
Implementing the project, officials said, would require one mile of temporary road construction and maintenance on 27 miles of roads. The project would also require an exemption from hiding cover standards for elk habitat.
Before the 2017 Park Creek fire, Stonewall had proposed up to 8,500 acres of logging, thinning and burning. Roughly 13,000 acres of the project area burned during the wildfire, which caused the Forest Service to withdraw it pending supplemental environmental analysis.
“During the last days of the Park Creek fire, the Rice Ridge fire was coming toward us and there are serious concerns about a swath of vegetation that remains … just west of the community,” said Lincoln District Ranger Michael Stansberry. “That area remains unburned, so we’re looking at how to implement it and prevent fire from moving into that side of the community. For us, Stonewall is still very valid.”
The Forest Service has opened a 45-day public comment period on what it calls a “supplemental environmental impact statement,” which analyzes the effectiveness of the project in light of environmental changes following the wildfire.
Much of what burned included areas slated for prescribed burning, Stansberry said. The latest alternative calls for only about 200 acres of prescribed burns, but the unburned timber units hold a good amount of saleable logs, he added.
At the time the Forest Service withdrew Stonewall, the project had been temporarily halted by a federal judge, who among several findings ruled that that Forest Service had not shown an imminent danger of wildfire. When the area then caught ablaze, the project provided political points for those pushing to reform environmental litigation.
“Repeat litigants prevent communities from doing necessary forest management,” Rep. Greg Gianforte said at the time.