Rehberg Schedules Rocky Mountain Front Listening Session in Choteau

04/13/12

CBU comment: This is a great victory for Forest Access for All and Multiple Use on public lands. Kerry White from CBU went down to Wallowa-Whitman forest in Oregon back some years ago and helped the folks down there with how to comment on the forest travel plan. Kerry was down for a week the beginning of April assisting FAFA in writing appeals in over a dozen meetings and presentations. CBU applauds the hard work and commitment of the newly formed group Forest Access For All and all the forest users who stepped up and fought these overbearing closures. This is a great example to others across the nation how multiple forest users can get together and make their voices heard. Continue to keep up the hard work!! “The price of freedom is constant vigilance” Thomas Jefferson

Wallowa-Whitman supervisor withdraws travel management plan

Kerry White from CBU went out to Lagrande to help those folks on writing their Forest appeals

Kerry White power point presentation video

Gallatin County just sent a letter to the Forest Service announcing they will be taking them to federal court for the damage and trespass the FS did to Bear Canyon Road. The people are going to get Bear Canyon Road back. Bear Canyon Road was established in 1903 and predates the Forest Service

To read the PDF copy of the Gallatin County commission letter click here Bear Canyon FS litigation 3-27-12

January 11, 2012

Mr. Tom Tidwell

Chief, USDA Forest Service

1400 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20250

Dear Mr. Tidwell:

I’m writing on behalf of my constituents who have raised concerns regarding the Gallatin Forest Travel Plan.  As you know, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a ruling that the Forest Service’s Gallatin National Forest Travel Plan did not comply with the Montana Wilderness Study Act of 1977.  It was the court’s opinion that the plan “improperly ignores the impact of increased volume of motorized and mechanized use on current users’ ability to seek quiet and solitude in the study area.”  When defending its decision to not include historical use data, the Forest Service claimed that it was a non factor because there wasn’t any historical use data available.

It is my understanding that during the comment period for the travel plan a substantial amount of historic use evidence including signed letters, pictures, a log sheet created by a FS employee, and an advertisement from the Forest Service to encourage people to come to the WSA to snowmobile.  For whatever reason it appears that none of this important evidence was used by your agency during the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.  Unfortunately, the courts have used this lack of evidence as their reasoning to uphold their latest ruling.

Since the travel plan has been held up by the courts, the Gallatin Forest has had to revert back to a backup winter use plan that is extremely restrictive to snowmobile use.  Meanwhile, the local economies around the forest are suffering due to the restrictions. Snowmobiles in the Gallatin National Forest alone bring in over 20 million dollars of economic activity every winter. This money turns over 13 times throughout this area in support of all the businesses. This activity and the money it generates are critical to the economic health of our area.

I urge you to draft another Travel Plan that includes all historical use data that is submitted during the comment period. We need a solution that works for the folks who live and work in and around the Gallatin National Forest.  Thank you for your consideration of this request, and please don’t hesitate to contact my office if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Denny Rehberg

Member of Congress

The next steps for the Gallatin Crest

Windy Pass in the Gallatin Range is a place of spectacular beauty.

Trying to explain it, Roger Jenkins recently recalled the opening scene of “The Sound of Music,” when Julie Andrews twirls in a grassy mountain meadow singing “The Hills are Alive.”

To read full story Click here

Sage Grouse habitat is a tool used by federal land managers to restrict access for recreation, resource development, and ultimately the taking of private property rights. Land management agencies fueled by a takeover from well funded environmental groups are portraying these actions as partnerships and cooperative agreements when in fact these are planned and predetermined agendas focused on removing people from the land and their property.

Two such meetings in Lewistown and Dillon have been scheduled to present their plans.

As part of a national strategy to evaluate greater sage-grouse conservation measures in land use plans, the Bureau of Land Management’s Dillon Field Office is asking the public to help identify issues to be addressed in an environmental impact statement and land use plan amendment.

A scoping open house will be held

Jan. 12, 2012, at the National Guard Armory  

in Dillon from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.  

Members of the public can drop into the open house at any time between those hours.  The armory is located at 1050 Montana Hwy. 41.

The Dillon meeting is one of 26 being held across the Western Region.  Scoping meetings allow attendees the opportunity to review posters and other informational materials, talk with project team members, and submit comments on the project.

Bureau of Land Management Begins Scoping for Greater Sage-Grouse Planning Strategy

As part of a national strategy to evaluate greater sage-grouse conservation measures in land use plans, the BLM Lewistown Field Office is asking the public to help identify issues to be addressed in an environmental impact statement and land use plan amendment. A scoping open house will be held January 10, 2012, at the Yogo Inn in Lewistown from 5 to 8 p.m. Members of the public can drop into the open house at any time between those hours. A short overview of the sage-grouse planning strategy will be presented at 5, 6, and 7 p.m.

The Lewistown Field Office will be amending the Judith Valley Phillips Resource Management Plan to apply greater sage-grouse habitat conservation measures to land use activities.

Based on ongoing threats to the greater sage-grouse and its habitat throughout the West, as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2015 deadline for making a decision whether to list the species under the Endangered Species Act, the BLM will be incorporating consistent objectives and conservation measures into relevant resource management plans by September 2014.

For those unable to attend the scoping meeting, scoping comments may be submitted by a variety of methods. More information on how to submit comments can be found at http://www.blm.gov/mt/st/en/prog/wildlife/mtdksplanning.html.

The scoping period began December 9 and ends February 7, 2012.

For more information on the scoping process and greater sage-grouse habitat conservation measures, visit the BLM’s greater sage-grouse website at http://www.blm.gov/sagegrouse.

Contacts: Craig Flentie, 406-538-1943

or Mary Apple, 406-896-5258