Sen. Steve Daines
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) last week helped lead a bicameral group of Republicans in urging the Biden administration to resolve challenges threatening forest management projects around the country.
Specifically, Daines and the lawmakers asked U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Acting Director Martha Williams and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Chief Randy Moore to work together to finalize the proposed rule, “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Regulations for Interagency Cooperation,” to preserve the forest planning process, remove legal ambiguities for such projects, and ensure agency resources are not diverted from conservation needs, according to a Feb. 9 letter they sent to Williams and Moore.
The USFS testified in October 2021 that such challenges exist due to the 2015 Cottonwood Environmental Law Center v. U.S. Forest Service (Cottonwood) decision, in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the USFS must reinitiate consultation on completed forest plans, contradicting a previous 10th Circuit Court ruling, the lawmakers wrote.
“This decision imposed a new, ambiguous standard for consultation on the agency effectively setting a litigation trap for USFS and subjecting the agency to a never-ending analysis loop-hole,” they wrote. “Since 2015, there have been dozens of lawsuits and threats of lawsuits in some cases shutting down entire forests. This has blocked, and will continue to block, essential forest projects from moving forward, putting communities and wildlife at risk.”
A partial fix enacted by Congress sunsets in March 2023, according to their letter, and at that time, all forests will be subject to “this unjustified, ambiguous procedural requirement.”
In turn, the agency will have to go through re-consultation, regardless of the merit, on over 100 forest plans. And despite the looming deadline, the USFWS “continues to delay finalizing a rule that would provide immediate relief to the agency,” the lawmakers wrote.
“While we strongly support finalizing the proposed rule as drafted, we understand this issue involves many equities and has a long legal history,” they concluded. “For that reason we request that you work closely together to find an acceptable and lasting regulatory solution and stand ready to partner with your respective agencies on legislation to achieve this goal.”