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Well, we are firmly in the middle of the human days of summer. This hot weather makes a dog just want to lay down and nap all day. To be fair, cold weather has the same effect on me. On these hot summer days, a dog must remember to make several trips to the toilet bowl, er I mean water dish to stay hydrated. Staying hydrated is the key to a safe summer and it provides many opportunities to take Mom, I mean Coleen for a nice stroll around the grounds of the home base of the Montana Logging Association.
The other day I was in Safety Man Tim’s office providing my head some therapy scratches. We were discussing serious topics like who was a good boy and future tactics for cat mitigation from the office grounds when Tim brought up the Pintler Face Project on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. The Forest Service developed the project to improve the Forest’s resiliency, decrease conifer encroachment, provide a source of timber for local communities, and improve the condition of local watersheds. Pintler Face is a great project that will not only provide timber for local mills but will help with forest health.
As I felt the scratches on my ears intensify, Tim started telling me about how two years after approval of the project and after nearly half of the commercial timber harvest had been completed several serial enviro litigators filed a complaint alleging that the Forest Service violated NEPA and the Endangered Species Act. Three months later, just as commercial harvest was about to resume, they filed a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to halt all activities implementing the Project. Again, the head scratches intensified to the point of me not getting much pleasure from them.
So, on June 25th, U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen held a hearing on a motion for a preliminary injunction. Our good friends at AFRC got involved along with a long list of people that this decision will affect. All at once my now well scratched head started to feel relief as the once hard scratches turned to nice belly rubs as I started to hear about how the community came out to show support for the project. A strong showing of over 30 people (not only from industry but the local community) filled the courtroom in support of the project. The community support demonstrates how important it is for projects, like Pintler Face, to proceed because they benefit from the health of the forest and directly benefit the rural communities that depend on a reliable source of federal timber.
July 12th rolls around and Judge Christensen denied, in part, the motion for a preliminary injunction sought by the anti-forestry groups. Judge Christensen ruled that the commercial harvest component of the project can proceed as soon as the grizzly bear looks at its pocket calendar and leaves the area on July 15th. The non-commercial work is on hold until the court decides the case’s merits. Safety man Tim was so happy telling me this that he dug into his lunchbox and gave me half of his ham sandwich making this not only a huge win for the industry but also for your ol’ buddy Hank!
Some of the recent litigation problems on other projects have been focused on illegal use of blocked off roads. I think even a cat can figure out that this is a pretty weak point to stand on. How are you supposed to account for something that is illegal? But it is working for the litigators. Tim really admires the folks in the forest and their partners in the Good Neighbor Authority as they are actively working on a fix to this problem too. The folks at the Forest Service get a bad rap sometimes. There are some very dedicated people in the USFS that hit roadblocks from litigation and still find a way to put these crucial projects up. Imagine how frustrating it must be to put all the work into putting a project together like Pintler Face just to see it get held up in the 12th hour in court.
After a series of what seems like endless losses in litigation, Pintler Face is a refreshing win. It proves that this industry is still willing to fight. We are ready to fight for what is right, we are ready to fight for our industry, we are ready to fight for a healthy forest. Collaboration guru Sean Steinbach recently said it best when he was accepting an award for his tireless work, “Its amazing how much work we have to do to do the right thing on the ground.” At the end of the day, we need to manage our forests. To get this done, we all are going to need to stand up and fight for what is right. I’m ready…are you? Until next time…Hank
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