Forest Service releases Stonewall Project Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement

The Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest announced Friday that it has a new plan for the Stonewall Vegetation Project west of Lincoln.

The new proposed alternative, outlined in a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, includes 1,435 acres of treatments including commercial thinning, 270 acres of prescribed burns and other activities. Forest Service crews would have to construct less than a mile of temporary road and perform maintenance on 27 miles of established roads. As part of the treatment, the Forest Service developed a site-specific forest plan amendment for elk habitat.

A 45-day public comment period on the DSEIS began Friday and runs through Jan. 14, 2019.

Forest Supervisor Bill Avey finally signed the Record of Decision for the Stonewall Vegetation Project's original preferred plan in September 2016, but a lawsuit brought by the Alliance for Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council, led Federal District Judge Dana Christiansen to grant an injunction against the project on May 30, 2017.

The environmental groups argued that the Forest Service approved the project without completing consultation on Canada Lynx habitat with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Christensen also found that the obligation to ensure the agency complied with the Endangered Species Act outweighed concerns about fire danger presented by the heavy load of dead and down trees in the project area. Six weeks later, lightning sparked the Arrastra and Park Creek Fires, which ultimately burned 13,390 acres of the project area.

In January, Avey chose to review the fire's impact on resources in the project area, and in June Christensen granted a Forest Service request to voluntarily remand the project for completion of a Supplemental Environmental Impact Analysis. He also chose to vacate Avey's Record of Decision, Lincoln District Ranger Michael Stansberry said the vacature ended the lawsuit, but put the project back to "ground zero."

"We're going through the same process we did before, but we're able to go through it much more quickly. All we needed to do was really analyze the effect of the fire, because we'd already analyzed the project area," he said.

Stansberry said the new alternative plan is still centered on the foundation of a good project in a good area.

The new plan may also help the project in one notable way. The environmental groups who brought the lawsuit against it last year claimed the Endangered Species Act had been violated by the USFS because they implemented it before completing consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Lynx critical habitat. Stansberry said the DSEIS uses a new Canada Lynx direction from the Region 1 that should meet that requirement.

"The analysis occurs over the region, so we're looking at more than just a small fragment of the landscape; we're looking at the entire landscape," he said.

A potential sticking point for the DSEIS is the forest plan amendment for elk habitat, which is an exemption from the current Forest Plan elk hiding cover standards. "We still believe, in consultation with the state, that the elk herds are still protected and adequate under this project,"

Stansberry said. He noted the district is constantly in contact with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks regarding all their projects, not just Stonewall.

The Stonewall Vegetation Project has been in the works since 2008, when the Lincoln Restoration Committee submitted recommendations for two restoration projects for the Lincoln Gulch and Beaver Creek areas. Those were consolidated as the Stonewall Vegetation Project and public scoping began in 2010.

"Our communities helped us develop this project and they told us that this project is necessary to restore the landscape's health and vigor while protecting the community from the remaining beetle and disease killed trees," Acting Forest Supervisor Lisa Stoeffler said in the press release announcing the release of the DSEIS. "This project will also help improve safety, economic opportunity, and ecological diversity in the Blackfoot Valley."

Stansberry said if things were to go ideally, and barring any litigation, they could potentially implement the revised project by the end of 2019.

More information on the Stonewall Vegetation Project can be found online through the Helena- Lewis and Clark National Forest website at https://www.fs.usda.gov/projects/hlcnf/landmanagement/projects, or at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=53872.

Members of the public wishing to submit comments can hand deliver them to the Lincoln Ranger District office in Lincoln between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m .; mail them to Lincoln Ranger District, 1569 Highway 200, Lincoln, MT 59639; or e-mail them to [email protected] with "Stonewall DSEIS" in the subject line.

Comments will be part of the public record for the proposed action.