Judge halts snowmobile grooming - Groups contend caribou depend on large tracts of undisturbed habitat
 
 
 
 
(Note: Ungulates and herbivores move around in order to find food, avoid predators, maintain their body heat in cold weather, etc. To imply that snowmobilers are a threat to such animals is false and is likely being used to cover up the real reason for any decline in numbers. The population of large predators -- wolves, mountain lions, grizzly bears -- is increasing due to "re"introduction by Wildlands Project, Control All Resources organizations. This has nothing to do with snowmobiling or recreation and everything to do with cutting off all access to lands that taxpayer dollars paid for. It is a Control Strategy.)
 
 

December 22, 2005
 
 
 

By Mike McLean
 
Hagadone News Network
 
Bonner County Daily Bee
 
P.O. Box 159
 
Sandpoint, Idaho 83864
 
208-263-9534
 
 
To submit a Letter to the Editor: clobsinger@cdapress.com
 

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho - A federal judge in eastern Washington ordered the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday to halt snowmobile grooming in the recovery zone for woodland caribou.
 
The order signed by U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley comes as a preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit brought by conservation groups to close the 450,000-acre recovery zone completely to snowmobile use.
 
Woodland caribou is often described as the most threatened large mammal in North America. 
 
"The woodland caribou is a magnificent indicator of the health of the northern Rockies environment," said Mark Sprengel of the Selkirk Conservation Alliance. "Their precipitous decline says a lot about how we have abused the northern Rockies over the years. Sometimes we as a people need to restrain ourselves in certain ways for the benefit of other species."
 
Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Defenders of Wildlife, Idaho Conservation League and the Lands Council of Spokane.
 
The last remaining woodland caribou in the lower 48 states are part of a small herd that migrates between Idaho, Washington and British Columbia.
 
In each of the last five years, from zero to three caribou have been sighted in the U.S. portion of the official Woodland Caribou Recovery Zone.
 
The groups contend caribou are completely dependent on large tracts of undisturbed old-growth forests and high elevation habitat.
 
"The Forest Service should have addressed the impacts of snowmobiles on caribou a long time ago," said Mike Leahy, staff attorney with Defenders of Wildlife. "Since they did not, emergency protective measures are necessary in the absence of a long-term solution."
 
The ruling states Forest Service agreements with local snowmobile grooming associations should have included more specific discussion with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about potential impacts of snowmobile use on caribou, said David O'Brien, spokesman for Idaho Panhandle National Forests.
 
The Forest Service doesn't directly groom trails.
 
O'Brien said there's no direct science that shows Woodland caribou are affected by snowmobiles.
 
"The whole big-game biology is that winters are difficult in this country," he said. An animal has the best chance of surviving the winter if it doesn't have to spend energy from being displaced.
 
The ruling will stop grooming on popular trails up Pack River, in remote Priest Lake areas and in northern Boundary County, O'Brien said.
 
Trails on state land on the east side of Priest Lake won't be affected, he said.
 
About 25 square miles of the recovery zone are already closed to snowmobile use.
 
Brian Hawthorne of the BlueRibbon Coalition said the ruling affects grooming on a handful of trails.
 
The coalition is among intervenors representing recreation interests in the lawsuit.
 
He's worried that conservation groups want to shut down a lot more motorized recreation in the forests.
 
"You could say we dodged a bullet," he said.
 
He said snowmobiling at Priest Lake is growing in popularity and in importance to the economy.
 
"People come from all over and rent cabins and rent sleds," he said.
 
He doesn't think the grooming injunction will impact immediate access or use.
 
"Grooming is for routes between destinations," he said. Groomed trails aren't destinations in themselves.
 
While the injunction is preliminary in a legal sense, he said he expects it to be in place throughout the lawsuit, "which could take years."
 
 

Copyright 2005, Bonner County Daily Bee.