Judge halts Forest Service project

Keep the trees.

A District Court judge ruled in favor of a Lands Council lawsuit this week by halting a Forest Service project on more than 2,000 acres in Shoshone County.

The decision will help preserve wildlife, said Lands Council spokesman Jeff Juel, adding that the conservation organization had been most concerned with the logging aspects of the Bussel Creek Forest Health Project.

"We're pleased that the court understands the importance of old forest habitat," Juel said.

The judge's decision, issued Monday, will permanently halt Forest Service activities on 2,137 acres just north of Clarkia, as well as stop road construction on 5.2 miles.

The project would have included logging, recreation management and fire protection.

Ensuring the forest isn't fragmented by logging will protect species that depend on mature forests for habitat, Juel said, like the Northern Goshawk and the Pileated Woodpecker.

"What it (the logging project) would mean is habitats would take a lot longer time to recover in those areas that would be logged," he said.

No work on the project had begun yet.

Jason Kirchner, spokesman for Idaho Panhandle National Forests, said the agency is still looking at the judge's decision and has yet to decide a next move.

He declined to comment on the Land Council's concerns, but pointed out that the aim of the project was to improve the forest's health.

"The overall purpose is to restore healthy forests by selectively favoring the trees that have a greater resistance to drought, fire and disease," he said.

Juel praised how the court also determined that future environmental impact analyses must address the impacts of fire management.

"The reason it's important to take a closer look at fire suppression policy is fire suppression actions have over the larger landscape actually damaged the land," he said.

Kirchner said that is one aspect of the judge's decision the Forest Service is still looking at.

"Of course we're going to honor the wishes of the court and go ahead with that," he said.

The Lands Council filed an administrative appeal of the Bussel Creek project in 2008, which was denied. The conservation organization filed a lawsuit last year.

The Forest Service will continue researching the situation, Kirchner said.

"We'll continue to get projects completed in the forest and when it comes to this decision, we'll see how it plays out," he said.