Group is upset over agenda for Fishlake forest
By Donna Kemp Spangler
Deseret News staff writer
Deseret News, May 9, 2001
The Utah Environmental Congress has sued the U.S. Forest Service over the federal agency's plan to log a portion of a 50,000-acre area within the Fishlake National Forest.
The suit filed May 2 in federal court alleges the Forest Service approved a timber sale known as the "Monroe Mountain Ecosystem Restoration Project" without adequately addressing the impacts it would have on wildlife.
Environmentalists appealed the timber sale, but the Forest Service upheld the decision. So they decided to sue.
"The lawsuit was the last option," said Denise Boggs, executive director of Utah Environmental Congress. "We are left with this as our only recourse. We could either forget about it or sue them. We thought it was important enough to sue them over this."
The lawsuit names as defendants U.S. Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth and former Fishlake National Forest supervisor Rob Mrowka, who approved the project.
Guy Pence, acting forest supervisor for the Fishlake National Forest, said he couldn't comment on the lawsuit until he reviews it but said the entire project addresses a number of restoration issues. Besides logging, the Forest Service also plans to conduct prescribed burns in an attempt to restore the area.
Of big concern to environmentalists is a plan to log close to 9 million board feet of timber within roadless areas.
Boggs said that area includes 12 watersheds within Sevier River Basin plus five inventoried roadless areas. It also is the home to the threatened Southwest willow flycatcher and other sensitive species, such as the bald eagle and Bonneville cutthroat trout.
Environmentalists say the Forest Service is ignoring its own management plan that designates the 50,000-acre area with a designation that has this goal in mind: "To emphasize the habitat needs of one or more wildlife management indicator species and increase species richness and diversity."
Yet the suit alleges that the Forest Service failed to address the cumulative impacts of past and future proposals.
Boggs said the Forest Service hasn't monitored the wildlife to find out how many sensitive species exist. Yet the Forest Service is planning a timber sale without knowing the impacts, she added.
Furthermore, Boggs said the Forest Service claims this is an area that is not in good shape because it has been overgrazed.
"But instead of getting rid of the livestock," Boggs said, "(Forest Service) says, 'Let's log it.'"
