Conservation News
Groups to challenge agreement in court -- Enviros claim plan would harm fish habitat
By Buddy Smith
HAMILTON --Two conservation groups have told the federal government they intend to sue over an agreement with Plum Creek Timber Co. that allows incidental harm to some protected fish in exchange for a 30-year commitment to improving native fish habitat.
Plum Creek owns more than 1 million acres in Montana, including about 8,000 acres of timberland in the northern Bitterroot Valley. The company has more bull trout habitat in Montana and Idaho than any landowner outside the Forest Service.
Pacific Rivers Council and the national Trout Unlimited said Wednesday they filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The agencies in November 2000 approved a Native Fish Habitat Conservation Plan with Plum Creek, the first of its kind between a private landowner and the federal government in the northern Rockies.
Trout Unlimited objected to the plan before it was approved, arguing it was too vague and required very little in improved land management practices or monitoring of changes in native fish habitat.
The plan covers 1.4 million acres in Montana and Idaho. For its part, Plum Creek gets an �incidental take� permit, good for 30 years, that will allow logging, road building, land sales and other activities that could impact 17 species of threatened and endangered fish on company lands. Plum Creek also receives some assurances against restrictions from future
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