Federal judge halts Lolo Creek area logging project

gavel

A federal judge has halted a large timber sale in the Lolo Creek drainage of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, because officials failed to consider the latest information on returning wild steelhead numbers.

Judge Lynn Winmill ruled the U.S. Forest Service and National Marine Fisheries Service relied on outdated fish numbers when they approved the Lolo Insect and Disease project in parts of the Upper Lolo, Musselshell, Middle Lolo and Eldorado creek watersheds.

The project would require the construction of 13 miles of temporary road and is projected to produce 44 million board feet of timber and produce more than 950 jobs.

Environmental groups sued the two federal agencies last summer, arguing the Forest Service and fisheries service relied on steelhead numbers from 2011 to 2015, when counts of wild Snake River B-run steelhead reached between 23,000 to 44,000, a 30-year high. But the agencies declined to reconsider their decision in the face of new data that became available in the fall of 2019 showing wild fish numbers dropped to just over 8,100, a 25-year low. (Lewiston Tribune)

Tags: , , ,