May 15, 2015 Ms. Sharon LeBrecque, Acting Forest Supervisor Forest Plan Revision Flathead National Forest 650 Wolfpack Way Kalispell, MT 59901 [email protected] Sent via email and certified mail this date Re: Notice of Intent to revise the Flathead National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan and draft an amendment incorporating portions of the NCDE Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy, and prepare an associated Environmental Impact Statement. Dear Ms. LeBrecque: We appreciate the opportunity to submit the attached comments in response to the Notice of Intent to revise the Flathead National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan and prepare an associated Environmental Impact Statement. WildEarth Guardians is a non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining, protecting, and restoring the native ecosystems of Montana and the American West, with some 66,500 supporters. WildEarth Guardians has an organizational interest in the proper and lawful management of the Flathead National Forest. Our members, staff, and board members participate in a wide range of hunting, fishing and other recreational activities on the Flathead National Forest. Upon reviewing this Proposed Action of the Revised Forest Plan, we believe that such a revision—and the resulting environmental and legal consequences—will likely impact the interests of WildEarth Guardians’ members by threatening the survival of fish, wildlife and plants on the Flathead, increasing the possibility of recreational user conflicts, and having other significant and lasting impacts on the environment. Table of Contents I. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………….2 II. General Comments about the Planning Process……………………………………………..3 III. Grizzly Bear Management and Amendments …………………………………………………3 IV. Bull Trout ……………………………………………………………………………………………………23 V. Designated, Management, and Geographic Areas ……………………………...…………36 VI. Sustainable Recreation Planning and Management ……………………………………..47 VII. Sustainable, Minimum Road System……………………………………………………………..62 VIII. Climate Change.…………………………………….………………………………………………………75 IX. Lynx………………………………………………………………………………………………………………76 X. Wolverine ……………………………………………………………………………………………………90 XI. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………….101 I. Introduction WildEarth Guardians submits this letter to provide the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Flathead National Forest Office (“Flathead NF”) with comments on the Proposed Action—Revised Land and Resource Management Plan for the Flathead National Forest, dated March 2015 (“Proposed Action” or “PA”). The Flathead NF’s scoping notice initiates the environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) for the Proposed Action. The Flathead NF published a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement in the Federal Register on March 6, 2015, initiating the 60-day comment period on the Proposed Action to revise the Flathead Forest Plan. The original closing date for that 60-day comment period was May 5, 2015, but the Forest Service extended the comment period for an additional 10 days to May 15, 2015. 80 Fed. Reg. 24,894 (May 1, 2015). Guardians’ comments are thus timely filed within the extended comment period. In its Revised Forest Plan, the Flathead NF includes management direction to support a variety of proposed and possible actions that may occur on the Flathead NF over the next 15 years, or life of the Proposed Action. The Forest Service describes the purpose of the Proposed Action as “to have an integrated set of plan direction . to provide for social, economic, and ecological sustainability and multiple uses of the Flathead NF lands and resources.” (PA at 2). While Guardians generally supports revisiting and revising the Flathead Forest Plan to support ecological, social, and economic sustainability as a goal for management of National Forest lands, we remain very concerned that the Flathead Proposed Action falls significantly short of legally required management directions. Guardians’ concerns regarding the Flathead Proposed Action are detailed below. The Flathead is one of the largest wild areas in the lower 48 states. (PA at 3). Located in the heart of the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, the Flathead contains a network of wilderness and roadless areas that border Glacier National Park and a remote portion of British Columbia. (PA at 3). The forest’s unique size and location highlight the Forest’s important role as a connector of habitats and core populations of associated wildlife. (PA at 3). The area is home to one of the most intact populations of medium to large carnivores in the contiguous United States and is inhabited by hundreds of species of native mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. (PA at 3-4). Carnivores inhabiting the Forest include the threatened Canada lynx as well as the grizzly WildEarth Guardians Flathead NF Forest Plan Revision and Grizzly Bear Amendment Scoping Comments – 2 bear and wolverine. (PA at 4). The Forest is part of Canada lynx critical habitat unit 3, Northern Rocky Mountain Region, with close to 1.8 million acres of habitat on Flathead NFS lands. (PA at 4). One of the largest populations of wolverines in the lower 48 states inhabits the Forest and surrounding portions of the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem. (PA at 4). Bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout migrate as adults from Flathead Lake to natal streams on forest to spawn. (PA at 4). II. General Comments about the Planning Process A. Consider the Cited Studies and Articles Best Available Science While certainly not exhaustive, we believe the information contained in this letter and its appendices represents the best available science, which the 2012 planning rule requires the agency to utilize.1 We ask that you regard it as such, or explain clearly why you disagree while providing the scientific basis for your analysis and conclusions. B. We Urge the Flathead NF to Use Standards in the Forest Plan We urge the Flathead NF to establish enforceable standards in the forest plan because it will ensure accountability and better environmental protection. Martin Nie (2014), a professor of forest policy at the University of Montana and a member of the national FACA committee overseeing implementation of the 2012 planning rule, recommends that the Forest Service utilize standards in second-generation forest plans: “Not only do law and regulation require standards, but they can also lead to efficiencies in forest planning. They can also be advantageous from a political perspective, as they resonate with a cross section of planning participants, most of whom want a greater degree of certainty, structure, and predictability in forest management.”2 We agree and encourage the Flathead NF to establish standards in its revised forest plan. In our scoping letter, we recommend several standards for the agency to adopt. III. Grizzly Bear Management and Amendments This process is somewhat unique, as it not only proposes to revise the Flathead Forest Plan, but it also proposes to prepare amendments to the Kootenai, Lolo, Helena, and Lewis & Clark National Forests incorporating relevant direction from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (“NCDE”) Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy. The Forest is part of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) for grizzly bears. (PA at 4). The NCDE is one of seven grizzly bear ecosystems in the continental United States, of which five are known to be occupied. (PA at 4). The Flathead River in British Columbia, the North Fork of the Flathead River in Montana, as well as drainages on the east-side of the Continental Divide which are 1 36 C.F.R. § 219.3 (agency “shall use the best available scientific information to inform the planning process” and “shall document how [that] information was used to inform the assessment”). 2 Nie, Martin and Schembra, Emily. 2014. The Important Role of Standards in National Forest Planning, Law, and Management. Environmental Law Reporter 44 ELR 10282. WildEarth Guardians Flathead NF Forest Plan Revision and Grizzly Bear Amendment Scoping Comments – 3 located in the northwestern portion of the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, have the highest density of grizzly bears in inland North America. (PA at 4). The Forest is the largest land manager within the NCDE recovery zone, managing approximately 37 percent of NCDE lands. Roughly 1,000 bears are estimated to be within the NCDE. (PA at 4). In addition to our comments herein, we are also attaching and incorporate comments on the NCDE Draft Conservation Strategy by the Natural Resources Defenses Council. We include comments on the significant flaws of the Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy Amendments, which, again, are applicable not just to the Flathead Forest Plan, but to all future forest plan amendments that will incorporate the Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy Amendments. A. Overarching Issues 1. Reliance on the Draft NCDE Conservation Strategy (GBCSA) We understand that a key purpose of both the Flathead Forest Plan Revision and Grizzly Bear Amendments on the Kootenai, Lolo, Helena, and Lewis & Clark National Forests is to incorporate elements of the NCDE Grizzly Conservation Strategy (CS), in order to demonstrate the presence of “adequate regulatory mechanisms” to protect grizzlies which, if other threats are also addressed, could allow delisting of the NCDE population Distinct Population Segment (DPS) from the Endangered Species Act to move forward. However, this is based on the assumption that the Draft Conservation