La Sal mountain range as seen from Arches National Park, selfmade photograph in September 04 – CC BY-SA 3.0
It’s rare enough to have environmental victories of any kind these days. Yet, while many environmental groups have decided to deal with the current administration by keeping their heads down, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies is fighting even harder, challenging the U.S. government over its unlawful mismanagement of public lands – and winning!
Alliance for the Wild Rockies relies on private donations from individuals who want to protect the landscapes of the Rockies from destructive projects. As in this case, we cannot always recover the money we paid to hire an attorney. So, if you appreciate our work, please consider donating right now to help us continue to fight environmental destruction by lawbreakers in our own government.
Here’s the story:
When the Manti–La Sal National Forest issued its decision to log, masticate (grinding trees down to stumps), and burn across 952,115 acres – a stunning 1,487 square miles – more than two-thirds of the 1,413,111-acre forest, we filed suit in federal court. We had repeatedly warned the Forest Service through public comments and objections that this project did not comply with federal law. But the agency went ahead and signed the decision anyway, leaving us no choice but to file a lawsuit in federal court in Utah.
The Manti-La Sal National Forest stretches from central to southeastern Utah and into Colorado and contains the La Sal Mountains, Utah’s second highest mountain range. This is an area of stunning natural beauty that supports a multiplicity of species—and the Forest Service was going to break the law to destroy a vast swath of it.
Today we are jubilant to announce that the Forest Service decided to drop the project. Why? Because the agency knew it would lose in court. The area slated for habitat destruction included 454,452 acres – 710 square miles – of Federal Inventoried Roadless Areas that provide essential habitat for bighorn sheep, mule deer, elk, bears, raptors, and birds, including the imperiled pinyon jay.
Although euphemistically termed a “restoration” project, the decision actually authorized mass logging and burning of conifers and aspens, including 170,000 acres of pinyon-juniper forest, home of the aforementioned pinyon jay.
Like many bird species, pinyon jay populations have declined by 85% in the last 50 years due to habitat destruction. Ironically, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently issued a decision that pinyon jays may be warranted to be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act because of loss of their habitat to projects like this.
This project was such a huge threat to the Manti-La Sal’s beautiful and biologically diverse roadless forests that the Castle Valley town council passed a resolution supporting our lawsuit, in large part to protect its critical watershed, which is fed by mountain snowpack in our ever hotter and drier climate.
Alliance for the Wild Rockies often catches the Forest Service breaking the law. In this case, we sued, and the agency caved. While this is a great victory for wildlife and their habitat, it’s a mystery why the Forest Service forced us to sue rather than heed our public comments in which we clearly stated that the agency was breaking the law.
Normally, the prevailing party in a lawsuit against the government is entitled by law to have legal costs reimbursed. But because the Forest Service pulled this project prior to a court ruling, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and our co-Plaintiffs Native Ecosystems Council, Wildlands Defense, and Council on Wildlife and Fish, will not recover our attorney’s fees. Please consider making a donation to help us cover the thousands of dollars we incurred for hiring an attorney to hold the Forest Service accountable in court.
