Feature story - June 12, 2003
Logging and mining have devastated the Kootenai National Forest's ecosystem and have threatened the survival of wildlife that depends on it. Continued management under the present resource extraction model, underscored by politics and economies hostile to forest conservation, is pushing the Kootenai ever closer to the breaking point.
Kootenai National Forest of Montana
The Kootenai National Forest (KNF) stretches across 2.2 million acres of northwestern Montana. It includes portions of five different mountain ranges and its wet climate and relatively low elevation result in biodiversity unmatched elsewhere in Montana. The KNF is home to an amazing array of animals including 191 bird species, grizzly bear, gray wolf, Canada lynx and rare woodland caribou. The forest also boasts over a dozen different conifer species.
Kootenai's highly productive forest ecosystems have made it a prime target for the timber industry. For much of the recent past, logging on the KNF has surpassed that of all other national forests in Montana combined. The United States Forest Service (USFS) continually disregards its own Forest Plan standards in favor of "timber production" goals. On numerous occasions, standards limiting clearcutting and open road densities have been waived.
Logging and mining have devastated the KNF's ecosystem and have threatened the survival of wildlife that depends on it. Continued management under the present resource extraction model, underscored by politics and economies hostile to forest conservation, is pushing the Kootenai National Forest ever closer to the breaking point. Currently, 78 percent of the forest is vulnerable to road building and associated resource extraction.
For more information, visit http://www.wildmontana.org/PlanKootenai.htm
Photo: Greenpeace/G. Brad Lewis