Bitterroot Wildfire Restoration Money Gone

MISSOULA, Montana, February 9, 2004 (ENS) - Some $18 million in funding earmarked for restoration of the burned Bitterroot National Forest has been diverted to other uses, and forest officials are allowing large trees to be logged in contravention of a court ordered settlement agreement, conservation groups said Friday.

The 1.6 million acre forest covers two mountain ranges separated by the Bitterroot River valley in southeastern Montana and Idaho. Fires sparked by lightning consumed nearly 20 percent of the Bitterroot forest in the nation's largest wildfire of the summer of 2000, destroying more than 307,000 national forest acres.

Two years ago Saturday, seven conservation groups, after a bitterly fought argument, entered into a settlement agreement with Bush administration forest officials over timber sales and restoration on the Bitterroot.

The Wilderness Society, American Wildlands, and Pacific Rivers Council in one lawsuit, and Friends of the Bitterroot, the Ecology Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club in another, were assured by the court ordered settlement that "larger trees will be retained," and by forestry officials that restoration of the burned area was critically important.

On Friday, the groups released information showing that restoration is far behind schedule, and most of the money that was to be used to restore the burned area instead was used to pay costs associated with other wildfires.

Elk in the East Fork of the Bitterroot River near Sula, Montana, August 2000. (Photo by John McColgan courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

During a phone conversation with the Native Forest Network's Matthew Koehler on January 30, Bitterroot National Forest spokeswoman Dixie Dies said, "The $18 million is just gone. It isn't there. We are not expecting to get a windfall of $18 million. It's not going to happen."

The $18 million in missing Bitterroot restoration funds is part of $25.5 million in Bitterroot restoration and rehabilitation funds that, under the direction of U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, were taken from the forest in October 2002 to pay for costs associated with the 2002 wildfires.

To date, only $7.2 million has been returned to the Bitterroot. Forest Supervisor Dave Bull said in a statement late last month that officials did not anticipate the need to redirect restoration and recovery funding to cover fire suppression costs on other forests.

Bitterroot National Forest officials say that about 40 percent of the recovery and restoration work outlined in the court agreement is complete.

Bitterroot National Forest official Stu Lovejoy confirmed late last month that the forest has no money to complete any additional restoration work.

But, the conservation groups point out, over 9,000 acres (14 square miles) of the Bitterroot National Forest have been logged as part of the plan.

"Enough trees have been cut from the Bitterroot to fill over 4,300 log trucks lined up bumper to bumper for 50 miles," said Friends of the Bitterroot, the Pacific Rivers Council, the National Forest Protection Alliance in a statement Friday.

Some of the burned trees on the Bitterroot were small and provided too much fuel for the fires, forest officials say. (Photo courtesy USFS)

The groups released information obtained from the U.S. Forest Service that shows the Bitterroot National Forest is out of compliance with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Biological Opinion for their Burned Area Recovery plan.

The Biological Opinion, a formal Forest Service document, states, "To ensure connectivity, the Forest shall replace those culverts identified as priority one by the Forest on roads within the action area prior to September 2003." Appendix B of the Biological Opinion lists 20 culverts as priority one.

But according to Bitterroot National Forest officials, as of February 3, only seven of these 20 culverts have been replaced.

Fish passage culvert replacement has been completed on nine of 32 culverts, just 28 percent of the culvert replacements required.

Stream restoration and fish habitat improvements have occurred on nine miles of 16 miles required, 56 percent.

Best management practices upgrades have occurred on only 72.3 of 513 miles of road, just 14 percent. These upgrades are modifications of existing roads' surface and drainage that improve their ability to handle traffic without increases in sediment going into streams. But the work has been deferred and traffic still travels the roads, sending sediment into the nearby streams.

Road obliteration has occurred on only 13.2 miles of 46 miles of road surfaces that were supposed to be restored to natural contours near drainage ways and culverts, resulting in more erosion and pollution of waterways.

Reforestation is falling far behind logging. Only 7,900 acres of 33,150 acres required have been reforested, just 24 percent.

But 9,060 acres of 14,700 acres designated have been logged, 61 percent. Another 2,000 acres of logging is under contract, meaning that 75 percent of the logging is either finished or under contract.

But now the funds that were supposed to go to complete the restoration are gone. The conservation groups call what is happening on the Bitterroot "gross negligence."

Larry Campbell, conservation director of Friends of the Bitterroot, said this is what the Bush administration's "Health Forests Initiative" looks like in practice.

"We've said all along that the Bitterroot logging plan is a living example of the so-called Healthy Forests Initiative," Campbell said. "Just look at the facts. Under the guise of 'fuel reduction' the Forest Service is cutting down the largest trees miles from the nearest community. The Forest Service admits that their logging is increasing fire risk for up to eight years. The critical restoration work is simply not being done and with an $18 million funding shortage it's doubtful it will ever be completed."

Corrals, shop and house on the Bitterroot are at risk with the fire burning the timbered mountains to the south. August 2000. (Photo courtesy Bob Hughes)

"It's imperative that we move forward with the project to help restore the land and prevent further environmental degradation," Bosworth explained to the "New York Times" in December 2001 about the need to sidestep the public appeals process on the Bitterroot.

Today, restoration on the Bitterroot is stalled and unfunded, but logging is going ahead.

Koehler said the conservation groups are encouraging people to visit the Bitterroot National Forest to see for themselves what the Forest Service is doing on public land.

"Anyone who goes out on the ground will see that the largest, most fire resistant trees are being logged while the real restoration work isn't being done or is being done in a haphazard manner. This is an indisputable fact," said Koehler. "Unfortunately, what's happening on the Bitterroot is just another clear example that as long as the Forest Service's budget is tied to commercial logging they will be incapable of truly restoring our forests."

"Bosworth, Rey and Bull must be held accountable for non-compliance with the Biological Opinion, only completing 17 percent of the road and watershed restoration work and the fact that $18 million in Bitterroot restoration funds has yet to be returned," said Grove. "If these top Forest Service officials are not responsible, than just who is responsible?"

President George W. Bush introduced his Healthy Forests Initiative in August 2002 during the height of one of the most destructive wildfire seasons in 50 years. The President signed the Healthy Forests Restoration Act on December 3, 2003. It "streamlines" administrative procedures and appeals and provides Federal courts "direction" when reviewing fuel reduction or forest health projects.