Forest Service is sued to stop timber sales

KETCHIKAN - Environmental groups are suing the U.S. Forest Service, seeking to stop four Tongass National Forest timber sales on grounds of potential harm to deer populations.

Greenpeace and Cascadia Wildlands Project filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.

Larry Edwards, a Greenpeace campaigner in Sitka, said the Forest Service has underestimated how logging negatively affects deer habitat, creating less prey for wolves and hunters alike.

"Deer is the primary prey for wolves and is a primary subsistence species," Edwards said.

The timber sales at issue are Traitors Cove on Revillagigedo Island, Soda Nick on Prince of Wales Island, Overlook on Mitkof Island and Scott Peak on Kupreanof Island. The four represent a total of 33.4 million board feet of timber.

The lawsuit maintains the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to disclose that the deer model used in the timber sales is "outdated and inaccurate."

The model used usually overestimates the habitat capability and underestimates logging impacts, according to Edwards.

Tongass spokesman Phil Sammon said the agency didn't have any comment on the specifics of the lawsuit because it is pending litigation.

"We use the best science available to put the projects together," he said.

All four timber sales still are in the administrative phase, but already have gone through the Environmental Impact Statement process, Sammon said.

"None of the timber sales have been logged," he said.

Edwards said the 1997 Tongass Forest Plan required timber sales to keep a habitat-carrying capacity of 18 deer per square mile to retain wolf numbers. The Forest Service estimated Traitors Cove project at 21 deer per square mile, but the estimate is 9.5 deer per square mile when using models that account for deer habitat, according to Edwards.

"We've given the Forest Service every opportunity to address these problems up front," he said. "We've commented, appealed decisions, corresponded with the forest supervisor and we've been stonewalled at every step because they refused to acknowledge the scientific evidence we have."

The state Department of Fish and Game, while not a party to the lawsuit, also has raised the issue of logging's impact on deer.

Dave Person, Fish and Game research wildlife biologist, said the department has voiced concerns on how the deer model is used in Tongass sales.

"We've brought it up a number of times, that it could be improved," Person said. "I believe the Forest Service is in the process of improving the model to the extent that it can. I don't think they've just ignored our comments."