Judge bans wolf control but speeds up grazing analyses
by Todd Adams
As
part of an injunction banning wolf control by the federal government
on the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA), U.S. District
Court Judge Lynn Winmill has granted a request by Western Watersheds
Project (WWP) and the Idaho Conservation League (ICL) to speed
up environmental analyses on eight “problem” grazing
allotments with wolf-livestock conflicts.
In his April 2 decision, Winmill cited a previous case where
he imposed an accelerated schedule on the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM), “even though the BLM did not have the present resources
to meet that schedule.”
In the previous decision, Winmill’s court “expressed
its confidence that the BLM would obtain the necessary funding
to meet the expedited schedule,” Winmill noted.
Congress passed the Recissions Act in 1995 to compel the Forest
Service to set up a schedule to conduct environmental analysis
under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on each grazing
allotment in the National Forest System, which it did in 1995.
Congress did not provide extra funding for its mandate.
Asked if the SNRA could meet the court-imposed deadline, Deb
Cooper, SNRA area ranger, told the Messenger the SNRA
has not had the resources to meet its self-imposed deadlines
set in 1995, and Congress has provided “no huge increase”
in the SNRA’s budget. A previous request by the SNRA for
more time was denied by Winmill, she said.
“We’ll be meeting internally to see how we can meet
that schedule,” Cooper said. “I’m not sure how
it will play out.”
Cooper had told the Messenger in early March that the
SNRA has no staff specifically dedicated to writing allotment
environmental assessments (EA) or environmental impact statements
(EIS) and must pull staff off other projects. A full-time interdisciplinary
team of seven to 10 employees is working on the allotment analyses,
she said.
In his April 2 order, Wimill noted the government has said
the final EIS on the first group of highest-priority grazing
allotments could be finished by September, “and the Court
will so order.” Winmill also ordered review for the second
group must be completed before the 2004 grazing season and the review for the third group before the 2005 grazing season.
The Forest Service prepared and released on April 7 the Draft
Environmental Impact Statement for the Upper and Lower East Fork
Grazing Allotments and hopes to have a final EIS by September
of 2003 (see related story).
ICL and WWP had sought to close grazing on the following seven
SNRA grazing allotments: Pole Creek, Owl Creek, Champion Creek,
Salmon River, Fisher Creek, Warm Springs Meadow and Smiley Creek;
and Baker Creek on the Sawtooth National Forest.