Colorado environmentalists stopped two roadless-area
timber sales last month.
A federal judge agreed
with a Colorado Environmental Coalition lawsuit when he told the
Forest Service that the agency didn’t properly account for the
protection of two sensitive species, the northern goshawk and the
boreal owl, in preparing the Trout Mountain timber sale on the Rio
Grande National Forest. The agency claimed that goshawks need only
a 30-foot undisturbed buffer zone around nesting sites, ignoring
its own scientists’ recommendations for over 400
acres.
And on the Grand Mesa National Forest, an
appeal from a coalition including local ranchers, The Wilderness
Society, and the Western Colorado Congress convinced Forest Service
officials to turn back the Sheep Flats sale. Opponents argued that
logging would expose snowpack to direct sun, causing rapid spring
snowmelt that could bring floods and deprive irrigators of
late-season water.
Regional Forester Lyle Laverty
says that both sales are on hold until the Forest Service acts on
Chief Mike Dombeck’s proposed moratorium on building roads in
roadless areas. That decision is expected toward the end of the
year. A moratorium would likely block the Sheep Flats sale, but it
exempts Rio Grande National Forest, so the Trout Mountain battle
could continue if the Forest Service appeals.
*Gabriel Ross
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Roadless, for now.
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