Groups file suit over Bog Creek project
(Photo courtesy U.S. FOREST SERVICE) Five conservation groups are suing the U.S. Forest Service and Customs Border & Protection over the Bog Creek Road project near the Canadian border.
BONNERS FERRY — Five conservation groups are suing the U.S. Forest Service and Customs & Border Protection over a plan to improve a road in habitat frequented by imperiled wildlife, according to U.S. District Court records.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Wildearth Guardians, Idaho Conservation League, the Lands Council and the Selkirk Conservation Alliance filed the suit in federal court recently. The civil complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to halt the project in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. The project involves the construction and maintenance of Bog Creek Road and removes the seasonal restrictions on five roads which the groups argue is critical habitat for grizzly bear, mountain caribou, Canada lynx, wolverine and bull trout.
Grizzly bears in the Selkirk ecosystem have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1975 and the status of the small and isolated population was reclassified as endangered in 1999.
The groups contend habitat fragmentation continues to threaten grizzly bear and the population has failed to meet most of the recovery targets identified in a 1993 recovery plan.
“The Forest Service’s approval of the Bog Creek project will exacerbate the hurdles already thwarting grizzly bear recovery,” Andrea Santarsiere and Collette Adkins, counsels for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in the 33-page complaint.
Bog Creek Road, which parallels the international border, has been closed and gated since the late 1980s to protect grizzly bear. Reopening the road requires the clearing of vegetation, in addition to extensive construction and maintenance. The route will also be changed from seasonally restricted, which limits the number of vehicle trips to 57, to administrative open, which allows federal agencies unlimited access.
A seasonal restriction on Blue Joe Creek Road will be similarly reclassified so private property owners can access the Continental Mine.
The Forest Service and CBP issued a final environmental impact statement on the project in February 2019.
“The increase in road use and human presence from these authorized actions threatens to further fragment grizzly bear habitat and increase the potential for human-caused mortality of bears in this fragile population,” Santasiere and Adkins wrote.