The Custer-Gallatin National Forest recently issued a Finding of No Significant Impact approving the South Plateau Landscape Area Treatment Project.
The 16,462-acre logging project (to “improve forest resilience”) includes 5,531 acres of clear-cutting, 6,593 additional acres of commercial tree-cutting, and 56 miles of road construction near Yellowstone National Park — critical habitat for whitebark pine, grizzly bears, Canada lynx, and other important species.
The Forest Service decision prompted multiple conservation groups to file a lawsuit. Their filing criticizes the decision for, among other things, increasing stressors on several important wildlife species and a lack of clear parameters or guidelines for harvesting timber over a 20-year period.
“The Forest Service needs to drop the South Plateau project and quit clear-cutting old-growth forests,” said Mike Garrity, the executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. “Especially clear-cutting and bulldozing new logging roads in grizzly habitat on the border of Yellowstone National Park.”
