Friends Appeals Echo Trail Project

[BDub]

No surprise here. CWCS thinks the Forest Service conducted a good job on this project. There is NO BUFFER ZONE to the Boundary Waters!



Friends Appeals Echo Trail Project

Appeal challenges Forest Service interpretation of protected roadless areas

MINNEAPOLIS, MN Last week, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness joined The Sierra Club North Star Chapter (Lead Appellant), Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, Defenders of Wildlife, The Wilderness Society, and Audubon Minnesota in filing an administrative appeal with the USDA Forest Service formally objecting to the Agency's January 29, 2007 decision to adopt the Echo Trail Area Forest Management Project Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).

The Echo Trail Area Forest Management Project (the Project) area borders the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) on the north and south sides of the Echo Trail and completely surrounds the Trout Lake Unit of the wilderness. Some timber stands identified in the Project could be cut right to the wilderness boundary.

Objecting primarily to the Project's potential impact on the BWCAW and surrounding inventoried roadless areas, the appeal claims: The Forest Service failed to consider direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of the Project on the BWCAW; The Forest Service failed to preserve wilderness character pursuant to section 4(b) of the Wilderness Act of 1964; and the Project violates the 2001 Roadless Rule by allowing temporary roads and timber harvest in inventoried roadless areas (IRAs).

The courts have previously addressed the impacts of forest management projects on 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 the 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 and visible effects inside the wilderness caused by activity outside."

Preservation of wilderness character is clearly defined in the Wilderness Act, says Lois Norrgard, Co-Chair, Forest Committee, Sierra Club North Star Chapter. Section 4(b) charges the Forest Service with preserving wilderness character, and nowhere does the language provide an exception for management activities undertaken just outside a wilderness boundary.

IRAs just outside the wilderness would be impacted by the Project. "We interpret the 2001 Roadless Rule to protect roadless areas inventoried since 2001," says Brad Sagen, Board Chair, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness. The Rule defines IRAs as areas identified in a set of IRA maps in the 2001 Roadless Rule Environmental Impact Statement and including any subsequent update or revision of those maps. Post 2001 IRAs, Picket Lake, Urho Creek, Agassa Lake and Big Lake would be impacted by clearcuts, partial cuts, and temporary roads. In the Project's FEIS, the Forest Service acknowledges these areas are IRAs but concludes they are not protected by the Rule because they are not listed on the 2001 official map.

That's like the Forest Service acknowledging your house exists but not protecting it from a forest fire because it is not on an official map! We define protected roadless areas as roadless areas acknowledged by the Forest Service, map or no map, Sagen says.

The appellants have also made claims regarding effects on lynx, the need for additional Management Indicator Species (MIS) and the Forest Service's improper substitution of Management Indicator Habitats for MIS, forest composition objectives, zone and forest-wide spatial objectives and requirements for public involvement in the monitoring program.

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