For more information contact:
Lois Norrgard, Sierra Club, 952-881-7282
Betsy Schmiesing, Friends of the Boundary Waters, 612-766-8307
Brad Sagen, NMW, 218-365-6461
Conservationists Ask Court to Protect Wildlife & Wilderness
Duluth, Minnesota — Today conservation groups announced a lawsuit they filed June 29th which asks the federal court in Duluth to stop over 18 square miles of planned logging northwest of Ely that would surround the Trout Lake unit of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) with clear-cuts. The "Echo Trail Forest Management Project" timber sale is in the Superior National Forest which is managed by the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.
"We are saddened that the agency is risking clean water, wildlife and special qualities of wilderness clearly intended for protection by Congress," said Lois Norrgard, Forest Protection Co-Chair of Sierra Club's Minnesota Chapter. "We are disappointed the Forest Service has not obeyed the law."
The suit was filed by these non-profit conservation groups: Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, Sierra Club and The Wilderness Society. The groups had exhausted all administrative appeals that Congress set up for citizens.
The conservationists are concerned about the large timber sale impacts on the BWCAW; recovery of the threatened lynx; and the diversity and density of wildlife in the Superior National Forest. Specifically, the suit focuses on the Forest Services failure to consider direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of the logging on the BWCAW and its failure to preserve wilderness character as required by section 4(b) of the Wilderness Act of 1964.
The conservationists also believe the timber sale will harm the lynx because the Forest Service failed to both analyze the Project's impacts on the lynx and adhere to lynx protections contained in the Forest Plan itself.
Designation of additional bellwether "Management Indicator Species" for the 2004 forest plan to track the impact of logging and roadbuilding on wildlife populations is sought. The suit also seeks to enforce the National Forest Management Act which would end the Forest Service's improper substitution of monitoring wildlife habitat acres for actual census counts of bellwether species. The forest plan is being challenged in court on this same issue by American Lands Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, and the Sierra Club.
"Preservation of wilderness character is clearly defined in the Wilderness Act," noted Brad Sagen, chair of Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness. "Section 4(b) charges the Forest Service with preserving wilderness character, and nowhere does the language provide an exception for logging or roadbuilding undertaken just outside a wilderness boundary."
The courts have previously addressed the impacts of logging adjacent to wilderness areas. Betsy Schmiesing, Vice Chair of the Board and Policy Chair, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, stated: "The agency is not free to ignore impacts on wilderness areas, even if those impacts flow from actions outside the wilderness." Schmiesing notes that in a prior successful lawsuit against the Forest Service's Big Grass timber sale in 2005, the court determined that the agency has a duty to take into account impacts such as illegal entry into the BWCAW on logging roads leading right to the wilderness edge, which can also serve as passageways for invasive species. "And the agency also has a duty to take into account the audible, visible and physical effects on the wilderness caused by activity outside."
The court is asked to permanently or temporarily halt the logging and roadbuilding of the Echo Trail Project until the Forest Service complies with its legal obligations to: analyze the timber sales impacts to the BWCAW; preserve the wilderness character of the BWCAW; protect the lynx; and ensure the area's natural rich diversity of species is maintained for future generations of Minnesotans to enjoy.