PUBLIC COMMENTS DUE 12/14: Save Grizzly Habitat in Shoshone National Forest

Shoshone National Forest plans log about 2000 acres along nine miles of the scenic Chief Joseph Highway between Cody, Wyoming and Cooke City, Montana, including part of a roadless area. This is in prime grizzly bear habitat and studies have recently drive home the importance of maintaining roadless areas for grizzly bears. 

PUBLIC COMMENTS DUE BY DECEMBER 14. Please submit your comments to the following email address: otroxel@fs.fed.us

Olga Troxel, Team Leader
Wapiti Ranger District

TALKING POINTS - please re-word these as much as possible in YOUR OWN WORDS. 

- Thank you for the opportunity to submit public comment on the plan to log 2000 acres of Chief Joseph Scenic Highway between Cody, Wyoming and Cooke City, Montana.

- I oppose the proposed logging plan because I am concerned as to how it will impact grizzly bears. This is prime grizzly bear habitat yet logging in the area will require the introduction of roads. I understand that the roads will be "temporary" but certainly poachers and hunters will find and use these roads during this time period and beyond. Further, studies demonstrate the importance of roadless areas for grizzly bears. They simply do not adapt to wildlife crossings and the like. Instead, we need to maintain as much of our existing roadless habitat as possible. 

- Justification for the planned logging is to prevent a wildfire in the area, to protect some second homes in that area. Studies however demonstrate that removal of fuels more than a few hundred feet is all that is necessary to safeguard homes. I urge the Forest Service to undertake this much less drastic measure of clearing space around structures,  instead of the plan to log 2000 acres. This would have a less deleterious impact on wildlife and habitat. 

- I also object to the plan on the basis of removing dead trees. It is well established that dead trees are a critical part of a healthy ecosystem. First, dead trees are less flammable than live trees. Second, dead trees are important for the storage of carbon - increasingly important in our changing climate. Third, as many as 2/3 of all wildlife species depend on dead trees at some point in their lives. Unnecessarily clearing dead trees obliterates habitat for mammals, insects and birds. Snags are important structural components in a forest. On to the forest floor, dead trees provide habitat for everything from insects to mammals. When dead trees fall into streams, they provide important fish habitat. Removing dead trees upends the ecosystem for no good reason. 

- For the foregoing reasons I oppose the plan to log in the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. 

FOR ADDITIONAL TALKING POINTS, please see this article. 

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