Forest Service Ignores New Information About Grizzly Bears at Gold Butterfly Project, Complaint Says • Idaho Capital Sun

New details about “returning, confirmed” grizzly bears in Montana’s Sapphire Mountains are significant and require the U.S. Forest Service to conduct further environmental assessments for the Gold Butterfly Project, an updated lawsuit against the federal agency says.

Additional information about the presence of wolverines also needs to be examined in more detail because of the impact the logging and road construction project will have on 55,147 acres of the Bitterroot National Forest and its wildlife, the lawsuit says.

“During 2023 monitoring efforts, five wolverines were discovered in the Bitterroot National Forest – four males and one female,” the lawsuit states. “Four of the wolverines (three males and one female) were discovered at the Sapphire Mountains monitoring station.”

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These wolverines were apparently identified within the project area, but their presence did not, and should have, prompt further environmental review of the project, the lawsuit states. Wolverines were listed under the Endangered Species Act in November 2023.

The Gold Butterfly Project authorizes commercial logging on 5,281 acres in the Sapphires, including clearcuts; non-commercial tree felling and burning on an additional 2,084 acres; and transporting up to 7,000 truckloads of lumber, the lawsuit says. It is estimated to cost taxpayers $4.2 million.

In September of this year, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council, two nonprofit conservation organizations, sued the Bitterroot National Forest and the US Forest Service, arguing that their approval of the Gold Butterfly Project conflicted with the National Environmental Policy Act and others Federal laws are subject to laws.

Last week, the conservation groups amended their complaint to say that the Forest Service acknowledged it had received new information about grizzly bears and wolverines in the area but still failed to conduct an additional environmental analysis or supplemental environmental impact statement as required by law.

The groups said in a new May 2024 Endangered Species Act consultation that the Forest Service admits grizzly bears have been detected in the Sapphire Mountains and “may be present” in the project’s “action area.”

In the same consultation, the Forest Service acknowledged that construction of 17.3 miles of new temporary roads proposed as part of the project could harm bears, the groups said.

However, the amended complaint says the agency refused to address the new findings with a new analysis, and yet the Forest Service continues to conclude that the project would have “no impact” on grizzly bears.

“Federal agencies must prepare a NEPA supplemental document when there are ‘material new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns related to the proposed action or its impacts,’” the complaint states.

After the Forest Service completed its environmental impact statement for the project, Missoulian reported three confirmed and distinct grizzly bears in the Sapphire Mountains in August 2023.

In March and April 2024, the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged that grizzly bears could be affected by the Gold Butterfly Project, the complaint says.

However, the law requires the agency to conduct additional review to fulfill its obligation to “closely scrutinize” a project, the complaint says.

It said the new information about wolverines also required more detailed environmental assessment.

A spokesman for the Bitterroot National Forest could not be reached for comment Friday, but the Forest Service generally does not comment on pending litigation.

In their original complaint, the conservation groups also allege that the logging and clear-cutting project would, among other things, make elk more difficult to hunt, increase the amount of “old growth,” and misinform the public about impacts on pine martens.

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