May 26, 2000 Vision 2000 section of the Ravalli Republic Friends of the Bitterroot advertisment.

CAG Inc. Comment August 16, 2000

Warm fuzzy

Managing our natural environment based on 'warm fuzzy feelings,' rather than science, is a dumb idea. An airplane trip over the Selway Bitterroot Ecosystem, (SBE) reveals roadless area that burned so hot that climax vegetation still has not returned. Such a scenic tour might convince Friends of the Bitterroot, (FOB), and groups like them and the uninformed, that a moratorium on managing our national forests, on building roads and on logging, all in the name of THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT,  is a dumb idea from an ecological point-of-view.

Foresters, who were part of our forest service a few years ago, comment on how the environmental groups such as FOB, Earth First, Sierra Club, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, to name a few of the hundreds of such groups, have managed to capture our federal land and resource management agencies, with the help of the Clinton/Gore Administration, and  THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT, and have abandoned the philosophy of Wise Use and not Abuse of our natural resources to one of "Save everything Use nothing."

While most of us would like to follow this latter philosophy; it is not practical. Los Alamos is a wake up call of what FOB, and groups like them, are making possible, through misuse of THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT,  for this great Nation on our public land; WILDFIRES that have erupted across the west underline that fact!

Logging has actually been good for our federal lands and our wildlife. Logging has opened large sections of climax vegetation thus reaping the benefit of our timber products, and at the same time allowing grasses and brush, that make excellent habitat and food sources for ungulates, to grow while the climax vegetation again reaches maturity, not to mention the clearing of dead, diseased and mature timber that sustains fires. In 80 to 300 years we need to go back and log them again.

Building roads to access our federal lands, makes available thousands of acres for resource extraction, land management, fire control and recreational uses in the face of an ever expanding population looking for opportunities to experience mountains and prairies and a society requiring our extractable renewable resources.

FOB, or organizations like them, have caused the state of Idaho to limit their elk licenses by one third and Idaho is looking forward to even more cuts in hunting opportunities. Montana you are next!

FOB, and groups like them have vigorously supported the introduction/reintroduction of our grizzly bears into the SBE even though there is historical evidence our grizzly bears did not inhabit the area, except along the rivers where anadromous fish came from the ocean to spawn. Ecologists warn there is not habitat for our grizzly bears and conditions will, if they are introduced/reintroduced, assure human bear conflicts, thus human Endangered Species Act conflicts.

Missoula, Montana has been struggling with a shortfall in revenue. Why? Because of actions by FOB, and groups like them, that have forced the timber industry to curtail revenue producing operations and, in many cases, has wiped out whole base industries with their accompanying satellites.

Ranchers and farmers risk their industry being destroyed, just as the timber industry has almost been destroyed, by actions of FOB, and groups like them in their misuse of THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT.

What will the public gain from the irresponsible actions of these groups? Higher priced food, higher priced renewable resources, destructive wildfires, destruction of our economy (especially in the western states)  and a style of government we won’t like! Socialism bordering on communism.

A classic example of "Top down socialistic management at work" can be viewed during our current Wildfire crisis.

This author has knowledge of an excellent fire management person who has been employed by the U.S. Forest Service to map fires when his talents could be better utilized telling those up stairs what to do, what equipment and personnel to place at the disposal of the fire managers and fire fighters.

Instead, the ‘management at the top’ has decided to import fire fighters from Tasmania. [See article, front page Missoulian August 16, 2000]

When the dust all settles and the review is being conducted after the fires are dead and gone, top management and the USFS, will cover their tracks by saying: "Well, we made a mistake – Should have used our own talent – gives them an out for subscribing to Top down management of a crisis rather than bottom up asking the people on the ground who know what is needed. See article in August 16, 2000 Missoulian, front page, ‘Locals wonder why they’re not being used.’

An interesting sidelight:   The Clinton/Gore Administration will be gone and FOB and groups like them can walk away when the woods begins to burn destroying our renewable natural resources, subsequently our economy, and the natural beauty of the west and say, "Oh well, you know how Mother Nature is." [Congress has passed a law that protects environmental groups]

The Citizens of Ravalli County, the Citizens of Montana and the Citizens of this great Nation are best advised to spend their money and effort returning the federal agencies to a science based system of land and resource management.

JUST DOESN'T CUT IT! 

End CAG Inc. Comment

Keeping Wilderness and Roadless Areas Wild.

Twelve years of Friends of the Bitterroot In 1988, a small group of local conservationists, dedicated to the quality of life in the Bitterroot Valley and surrounding backcountry, and deeply concerned over the ways in which the Forest Service was mismanaging the Bitterroot National Forest, banded together to form Friends of the Bitterroot (FOB), a forest watch group devoted to ensuring that the Forest Service adheres to federal environmental laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act in managing the national forest. This seemingly small event would subsequently fill an important niche then lacking in the local environmental community, and would have a profound impact on the ways in which the Forest Service would henceforth conduct it's activities in the Bitterroot.

Twelve years ago, the road & clearcut mentalilty dominated in the Forest Service. Even today, the scars from such ecological disasters, such as the Oh my God clearcuts disfigure the surrounding landscape. Taxpayer subsidized logging roads sliced into the fragile mountainsides, dumping tons of sediment into our clean water-sheds, devastating native fisheries. These unnecessary roads and clearcuts also fragmented and destroyed critical wildlife habitat, and frequently violated the Forest Service's own standards, such as for elk habitat effectiveness, and stream sediment load. Moreover, the concept of sustainable yield did not factor into proposed timber sales offered at below cost by the agency, bilking the US taxpayers to provide huge timber corporations with even larger profit margins.

Since its inception, FOB has grown into a nonprofit, volunteer organization that has built a reputation as one of the most effective grassroots Forest Watch groups in the country. Our efforts include commenting on virtually all of the Federal and State land management decisions across 5 national forests and adjacent state lands to ensure NEPA guidelines are followed to protect the few wildlands that remain in the Northern Rockies. FOB has been instrumental in reducing the timber liarvest to about 25% of the pre1988 unrealistic and ecologically unsound levels; protecting roadless areas; and progressing toward grassland and riparian protection with a 50% reduction of animals on grazing allotments.

More recently, FOB has become involved in other quality-of-life issues, such as pesticide use in our forests and the valley and the proposed expansion of Highway 93, to ensure environmental laws are not violated, and to guarantee that local citizens' concerns are heard, including the full disclosure of both community and environmental impacts.

FOB's success is rooted in mobilizing local expertise into a sustained volunteer effort. By drawing on the diversity of our members: scientists, geologists, biologists, artists, loggers, foresters, students, business owners, and other working and retired local citizens, FOB develops coordinated campaigns involving public participation, grassroots, organizing, education, and .press work. This process is driven by review and analyses of scientific research adapted to local conditions 6 a knowledge acquired by intensive Field work.

This paid off when the Salvage Rider suspended all environmental laws. FOB nonetheless continued providing high quality, detailed data, and diligently pressed the Forest Service to follow NEPA requirements despite the Salvage Rider. This coupled with public information campaigns dramatically minimized the impact of this destructive legislation (see adjacent map).

Fundamental to FOB's success is its thoroughness. FOB actively participates in the entire decision making process on issues vital to our ecological health  habitat destruction, road construction, prescribed burns, wilderness dam maintenance, mining, grazing, illegal ORV use, transportation, and land use planning to name just a few. FOB brings to the process a perspective, which maintains that environmental degradation is inherently damaging to the quality of human and nonhuman life alike.

An integral part of FOB's campaigns is public information. We make sure you have the facts and understanding to cut through agency bias and political rhetoric. Our literature and public programs help create an informed public that can participate in making good decisions, Right now, every community from Lolo to Hamilton has a Highway 93 Focus Group that is insuring the safety and community integrity of the Bitterroot Valley. Focus groups have formed for Wetlands and valley bike trails. These focus groups have achieved a citizen consensus on important transportation issues that seemed impossible just a few years ago.

We provide these groups and the public at large the results of our extensive transportation research. Our sponsorship of Walkable Communities served to both inspire and inform around a simple idea, We can make the community shape transportation rather than transportation shape communities.

Without local citizens caring and willing enough to challenge the Forest Service on these and other issues, the ecological and visual landscape would have been disastrously different than it currently is in 2000. Thanks to those founding members of FOB and the hundreds of other local Bitterrooters who have joined them over the last ten years, we still have one of the most pristine backcountry environments left in the lower 48 for wildlife. plants, and people to enjoy. Please help us keep it that way.

Without similar challenges to transportation and land use planning agencies, our valley will be transformed into the uncontrolled, sprawling pattern that we see in many other parts of the country. Please help us keep the Bitterroot Valley its unique and precious character.

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