Earthjustice to Sen Tester: "We have serious concerns about certain provisions of S. 1470"

by: Matthew Koehler

Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 05:15:24 AM MST

April 7, 2010

The Honorable Jon Tester
United States Senate
724 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2603

Dear Senator Tester:

On behalf of Earthjustice, we wish to comment on some key provisions of S. 1470, The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act of 2009. Earthjustice supports watershed restoration and protection of wilderness-quality lands in Montana and elsewhere.  Earthjustice also recognizes the work of many people, especially you and your staff, in drafting S. 1470.  However, we have serious concerns about certain provisions of S. 1470 that we urge you to address during any further consideration of the bill by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.  Our concerns involve the bill's mandate for mechanical treatment of timber on 70,000 acres of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest and 30,000 acres in the Three Rivers Ranger District of the Kootenai National Forest, as well as its constraints on compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Earthjustice is the nation's largest non -profit environmental law firm. Since our founding in 1971, we have provided legal representation at no cost to over 700 clients nationwide to protect our air, water, public lands, wildlife, and public health. Our Northern Rockies Office is located in Bozeman, Montana, where we have represented state, regional, and national environmental organizations in many cases to protect wildlife and public lands in Montana and the northern Rockies since 1993.

Full Letter Here

Additional information:
The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act vs. The Wilderness Act: Analysis by Wilderness Watch - click here.
FJRA Comments from Members of the Last Best Place Wildlands Campaign - click here.

GAO: USFS Fuel Reduction Projects 98% Litigation-Free

by: Matthew Koehler

Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 09:03:20 AM MST

Is Wood Biomass Electric Generation Renewable and Carbon Neutral?

by: Matthew Koehler

Tue Mar 02, 2010 at 13:42:15 PM MST

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The development of renewable energy resources has become an increasingly important part of our nation's and states' current energy strategies. Most states have mandated that electric utilities obtain an increasing share of their electric supply from renewable sources. Federal and state governments have provided significant subsidies to those who develop new renewable energy resources, and energy firms are enthusiastically responding to those subsidies.

Former MWA Board and Council Members on Tester Logging Bill

by: Matthew Koehler

Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 07:19:06 AM MST

"It is with a heavy heart we are compelled to oppose the organization we once served as Council members and officers."

We, the undersigned former Council members and officers of the Montana Wilderness Association, respectfully urge Senator Tester to modify the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act of 2009 to rectify the problems outlined by the Undersecretary of Agriculture as well as the Last Best Chance Wildlands Campaign. We cannot support the legislation as now written. We diverge from MWA here because we believe that the bill degrades both the quantity and quality of some of America's most cherished wildlands in Montana. We encourage consideration of the issues we have outlined below that would be necessary in order for us to support it.

We endorse the 10-point position paper, Keeping It Wild! In Defense of America's Public Wildlands, which has been submitted by the Last Best Place Wildlands Campaign.

The bill legislates the net loss of hundreds of thousands of roadless area acres, including S-393 Wilderness Study Areas designated in 1977 by the late Senator Lee Metcalf. This will create widespread environmental damage and the loss of an irreplaceable legacy for which future generations will, quite correctly, hold ours accountable. Also, the bills' Congressional mandate for timber cut levels sets a dangerous precedent. Resulting below-cost timber sales will cost taxpayers over $100 million. And proposed new Wilderness Areas are small, often disjointed, primarily "rock and ice" parcels that would fail to protect fragile wildland and wildlife ecosystems and corridors.

To make matters worse, the bill includes special provisions for new "Wilderness" units that defy both the intent and letter of the Wilderness Act, and the spirit of Wilderness that so many Americans believe is a vital and wondrous part of this great nation's heritage. Motor Vehicles, including helicopters, simply have no place in designated Wilderness. Yes, we need more Wilderness - lots of it - but we want it to be real Wilderness!

The bill also codifies secretive negotiated agreements - such as the Beaverhead-Deerlodge - that excluded many individuals and groups who've long been involved in the public process. This, and similar agreements, have been sealed by MWA and others over the objections of excluded organizations and individuals, of whom most live and work close to the land and know the compromised areas intimately.

It is with a heavy heart that we are compelled to oppose the organization that we once served as Council members and officers. Most of Montana's undeveloped wilds are long gone, and we cannot afford to lose big chunks of what remains. We believe that in recent years, the Montana Wilderness Association [MWA] has clearly compromised its long-held wildland protection mission and vigilant advocacy. We know many current and former MWA members who agree. In fact, many conservationists in the region are convinced that, quite simply, MWA has lost its way. We are among those people.

In summary, this bill will irreparably damage Montana's dwindling public wildland legacy. It will salt the gaping social wounds created by MWA's recent actions. It degrades the Wilderness Act of 1964 with provisions that damage both Wilderness and the Wilderness Idea. And it's a bad deal for future generations of Montanans who will need wild country more than ever in an increasingly crowded and uncertain future.

Lou Bruno (past president) - East Glacier
Joan Montagne (past president) - Bozeman
Elaine Snyder (past president) - Kalispell
Loren Kreck (past vice-president) - Columbia Falls
Larry Campbell - Darby
Susan Colvin - Great Falls  
Paul Edwards - Helena
Randall Gloege - Billings
Keith Hammer - Kalispell
Steve Kelly - Bozeman
Lance Olsen - Missoula
Bob Oset - Hamilton
Paul Richards - Boulder
Ross Titus - Big Fork
George Wuerthner - Helena/Livingston
Janet Zimmerman - Pony

USFS Retiree on Tester Bill: Gutting the Forest Service is not the Solution

by: Matthew Koehler

Fri Feb 12, 2010 at 08:24:12 AM MST

Worf joined the Forest Service in 1950 and spent 12 years in Utah on the Uinta, Ashley and Fishlake National Forests. Mr. Worf then became the Supervisor of the Bridger National Forest in Wyoming.  When the Wilderness Act passed in 1964, Worf was sent to the Forest Service National Office to head the development of Regulations and Policy for implementation of the Wilderness Act.  In 1969, he was assigned to the Regional Office in Missoula as Director for Wilderness, Recreation and Lands, a position he retired from in 1981. He lives in Missoula. Click here for a short video featuring Worf. - mk

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Gutting the Forest Service is not the Solution
By Bill Worf

I am a Montana native who graduated with a degree in Forestry from the University of Montana in 1950, when I started a career in the U.S. Forest Service.  When the Wilderness Act passed in 1964, I was serving as Supervisor of the Bridger National Forest in Wyoming.

Forest Service Chief Ed Cliff and Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman immediately tapped me to serve in the National Office to oversee implementation of the Wilderness Act.  I moved from Wyoming to Washington DC to administer the National Wilderness Preservation System established by the Act.  I served in that position until 1969, when  I was appointed Deputy Regional Forester for Wilderness, Recreation and Lands in Missoula, Mt.

Although I retired in 1983, I have remained involved in National Forest issues.  In this capacity, I have strong feelings about the Jobs and Recreation Bill (S 1470) introduced by Senator John Tester. I share the Senator's concern about growing fire and insect problems in our National Forests.  The Senator's heart may be in the right place, but his proposed solution would result in severe long-term damage to the Forest Service as an institution.

The Forest Service is one of the most respected agencies in government.  It contains the finest collection of natural resource professionals in the world.  I spent my professional career as a proud member.

With his logging bill, Tester is saying he knows more about how forests ought to be managed than professionals who work for the Forest Service.  Tester is telling us what to do and how to do it, even though what Tester wants may violate federal laws.  If Tester gets away with dictating forest management in Montana, every Senator and every Representative in Congress will try to do the same. Instead of being managed by one professional agency that considers all the views of public stakeholders from throughout the country, our National Forests would be managed by local interests primarily geared towards resource extraction.

By effectively dissolving the Forest Service, Tester would create 535 fiefdoms, all with different management mandates dictated by different members of Congress.  This would take away Americans' rights concerning our public lands.

What Tester may not know is that the National Forest System was established in 1897 by Congress.  Congress also established the Forest Service to administer these National Forests for the benefit of all Americans of present and future generations.  Subsequent laws provided additional guidance, including the Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act of 1960, the National Forest and Range Land Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974, and the National Forest Management Act of 1976.  Congress passed these laws to ensure our National Forests are administered in a planned and sustainable way - in perpetuity.

Because Tester is a Hi-Line farmer, I figured he may not know much about Forest Service history.  So, I attended an open house on Monday, October 26, 2009, concerning his logging bill.  I shared with the senator that  heavy corporate and political pressure had caused the violation of the 1960 Act mandating "Sustained Yield".  This unwise overcutting of our National Forests resulted in the closure of mills in Montana and elsewhere.

I followed up my conversation with Tester by sending him a detailed letter on Thursday, November 12, 2009.  I included a 20-page comprehensive  analysis of Forest Service reports which clearly shows the failure to maintain a "Sustained Yield" throughout the National Forest System.

I strongly disagree with Tester that the answer to overcutting in the past is to overcut in the future.  Congressionally mandating logging quotas and legislatively dictating management would convert our National Forest into "Private-Local Forests."  This is directly contrary to 113 years of precedence.  When Congress passed the Organic Act in 1897, lawmakers were assured that National Forests would remain open to the public and not restricted to private companies or privileged groups.

The Tester bill effectively says that a handful of local extractive interests have greater knowledge than the professionals of our Forest Service.  This dangerous precedent would be viewed with glee by special interest groups of all kinds!   For that reason, I must oppose the Tester bill.

Bill Worf served with the Forest Service for 33 years.  Worf reports he has not yet received any reply to the detailed analysis he sent Tester on November 12, 2009.

USFS Chief Emeritus: Tester bill "flawed, inappropriate, less than fully informed"

by: Matthew Koehler

Mon Jan 25, 2010 at 11:07:27 AM MST

Specifically, Mr. Thomas, stated that the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act "approach is flawed, inappropriate, less than fully informed, and has implications for the management of the entire national forest system. It should be debated in that context."

Mr. Thomas clearly expresses many of the same exact concerns about Sen. Tester's bill that have been expressed for months by members of the Last Best Place Wildlands Campaign.

At what point will Senator Tester, and supporters of his flawed logging bill, begin addressing these serious concerns?

Dr. Power: Mandating Logging Will Not Stabilize Industry

by: Matthew Koehler

Tue Dec 29, 2009 at 08:41:57 AM MST

Senator Tester's "Forest Jobs and Recreation Act," which seeks to both boost timber harvests and add hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness in Montana, had its first hearing before a congressional committee late last week. It was not surprising that Montana timber interests testified in favor of the bill.

What was interesting was that wilderness advocates from Montana and national environmental organizations were strongly divided over the merits of Tester's bill. Tester is attempting to "split the baby" and end the multi-decade paralysis that has both blocked any new wilderness protection for Montana's six million acres of unprotected wildlands and shrunk timber harvests on federal lands in Montana down to a small fraction of what they were two decades ago.

The Obama Administration, through the Undersecretary in charge of the U.S. Forest Service, weighed in on the side of the critics of Tester's bill, strongly recommending that key elements of the bill be modified.

Dr. Power: Two Views of the Tester Forest Jobs and Recreation Bill

by: Matthew Koehler

Tue Dec 08, 2009 at 13:03:33 PM MST

(Dr. Thomas Michael Power is the former Chair of the Economics Department at the University of Montana, where he currently serves as a Research Professor)

The controversy over Senator Tester's Forest Jobs and Recreation Bill is likely to get some national attention in a week or so as the bill receives its first hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests in the our nation's capitol. That bill has been called both Tester's "logging bill" as well as Tester's "wilderness bill."  Critics point out that the title of the bill mentions "forest jobs" but does not mention "wilderness" at all, leaving some suspicion as to what the main purpose of the bill is.

Dr. Power: Key Assumptions behind Senator Tester's "Forest Jobs and Restoration Act"

by: Matthew Koehler

Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 10:26:17 AM MST

"What I want to do here is simply outline the conventional wisdom from which Senator Tester appears to be operating. That will sound familiar, and, to many, convincing, but those assumptions are, in fact, highly debatable.  In commentaries over the next two months, I will then seek to critically explore each of those assumptions ....As common and familiar as all of these underlying assumptions are, they are far from being factual assumptions. They are a mix of folk wisdom, economic nostalgia, wishful thinking, and barely disguised commercial and bureaucratic government special interests. Before jumping onboard with Tester's proposal, each has to be critically analyzed."
- Dr. Thomas Power

Senator Tester Betrays Montana Wilderness

by: Matthew Koehler

Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 09:39:00 AM MST

More than 70 years ago Aldo Leopold, one of the founders of modern ecological principles had the following to say about Wilderness:

"Wilderness is a resource which can shrink, but not grow. Invasions can be arrested or modified in a manner to keep an area useable for recreation, or for science, or for wildlife, but the creation of new wilderness in the full sense of the word is impossible. It follows, then, that any wilderness program is a rearguard action, through which retreats are reduced to a minimum...

Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right... A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

Unfortunately, these foundational ecological principles have either been forgotten or ignored by Senator Tester and those who support his ill-advised and destructive S. 1470, the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act of 2009. This dangerous anti-conservation measure is misguided both for the immediate damage it would do, and for the damaging precedents it would set for the future.

Specific Concerns & Comments: