The Sapphire Mountains (Photo by Michael Schweppe via Flickr | DEED 2.0).
New details about “recurring, verified” grizzly bears in the Sapphire Mountains are significant, and they require the U.S. Forest Service to conduct more environmental review for the Gold Butterfly Project, alleges an updated lawsuit against the federal agency.
Additional information about the presence of wolverines also requires more scrutiny at impacts the logging and road-building project on 55,147 acres of the Bitterroot National Forest will have on the animals, the lawsuit alleges.
“The 2023 monitoring efforts detected five wolverines in the Bitterroot National Forest — four males and one female,” the lawsuit said. “Four of the wolverines (three males and one female) were detected at the Sapphire Mountains monitoring station.”
Those wolverines were apparently identified within the project area, but their presence didn’t prompt additional environmental review of the project, and it should have, said the lawsuit. Wolverines were listed under the Endangered Species Act in November 2023.
The Gold Butterfly Project authorizes commercial logging on 5,281 acres in the Sapphires, including clearcutting; non-commercial tree-cutting and burning on another 2,084 acres; and the transport of up to 7,000 truckloads of wood, according to the lawsuit. It is estimated to cost taxpayers $4.2 million.
In September this year, The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council, two conservation nonprofit organizations, sued the Bitterroot National Forest and U.S. Forest Service alleging their approval of the Gold Butterfly Project was contrary to the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal laws.
This week, the conservation groups amended their complaint to allege the Forest Service acknowledged it had received new information about grizzly bears and wolverines in the area, yet it still failed to do additional environmental analysis, or a supplemental environmental impact statement, as required by law.
The groups said in a new May 2024 Endangered Species Act consultation, the Forest Service admits grizzly bears have been verified in the Sapphire Mountains and “may be present” in the “action area” for the project.
In that same consultation, the Forest Service admits the construction of 17.3 miles of new temporary roads allowed by the project could harm bears, the groups said.
But the amended lawsuit said the agency has refused to address the new findings with a new analysis, and the Forest Service nonetheless continues to conclude the project would have “no effect” on grizzly bears.
“Federal agencies must prepare a supplemental NEPA document when there are ‘significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns bearing on the proposed action or its impacts,’” the complaint said.
It said after the Forest Service finished its environmental impact statement for the project, the Missoulian reported three verified and distinct grizzly bears in the Sapphire Mountains, in August 2023.
In March and April 2024, the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service admitted grizzly bears may be affected by the Gold Butterfly Project, the complaint said.
But the law requires the agency do a supplemental review in order to meet its obligation to take a “hard look” at a project, the complaint said.
It said the new information about wolverines also requires closer environmental scrutiny.
A spokesperson for the Bitterroot National Forest was not available for comment on Friday, but the Forest Service generally does not comment on pending litigation.
In their original complaint, the conservation groups also allege the logging and clearcutting project will make it harder to hunt elk, inflates the amount of “old growth” that would be left, and misinforms the public about effects on pine marten, among other problems.