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Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!”
‘The B Volume XXXV, Number 32
Top Business Person
Established 1985 – Locally owned & independent
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Group seeks injunction to stop Darby Lumber Lands project
By Michael Howell
Friends of the Bitterroot, a local non-profit conservation organization, has asked a federal judge to put a hold on and, ultimately, declare unlawful the implementation of the Darby Lumber Lands Phase 2 Project, also known as the Taber Mountain timber sale on the Bitterroot National Forest in the Sapphire Mountains south of Darby. According to information provided by BNF officials, Phase 1 of the project was completed in 2016 and focused on improving watershed and stream health including reducing chronic sediment from an extensive road system built decades ago for timber management. It also created a sustainable motorized access system and loop-based motorized routes, including 44 miles of connector trails for motorcycle and ATV travel. Phase 2 was billed as “continuation of the original project” that “also incorporates vegetation management activities” that will “improve watershed conditions through management of a
suitable transportation system, improve forest health and reduce potential fire severity and provide timber products and related jobs.” Proposed treatments include commercial timber harvests, noncommercial thinning, and prescribed burning to improve forest health. The project could provide 5.7 million board feet, or approximately 1,200 truckloads of timber to Montana sawmills. The lawsuit, filed last Wednesday, February 19, in U.S. District Court in Missoula is the first lawsuit that Friends of the Bitterroot has filed in over ten years. The organization claims that it is necessary to save crucial, roadless elk habitat surrounded by an area still recovering from decades of overharvest. “The Forest Service has missed a great opportunity to do true restoration on the most ecologically damaged lands on the Bitterroot National Forest,” said Jim Miller, president of Friends of the Bitterroot (FOB). “The Darby Lumber Lands have not recovered from decades of industrial-scale logging and roadbuilding, yet the agency plans to log the last ves-
tiges of intact forest ecosystem in crucial elk habitat and to illegally build roads to get the big trees.” The group contends that, not only is the Darby Lumber Lands project a violation of the law, it represents a broken promise by the agency to restore the area. “The Forest Service worked with numerous stakeholders to develop a project that would put the area on the path of recovery, a process that began all the way back with the Phase 1 of this project,” said Miller. “Now under Phase 2, the Bitterroot National Forest has decided to include harmful logging and road building instead of keeping the promise to truly restore the area.” The group claims in its lawsuit that the Forest Service did not identify a minimum road system that would still meet all the project’s needs and objectives as required by NEPA. They argue that under the current Forest Plan adopted in 1987, much of the project area and planned logging is in a management area [Management Area 8b] that prohibits comSee LAWSUIT, page 2
Gardening columnist Hackett gives us ‘More Dirty Fingernails’
Ann Bethea, owners of Florence Ace Hardware and Eastside Ace Hardware, has been named Business Person of the Year by the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce. She was recognized at the annual Chamber Awards Banquet on February 8. Jean Schurman photo.
Bethea named Business Person of the Year By Jean Schurman
Ann Bethea, owner of Florence Ace and Eastside Ace hardware stores, in Florence and Stevensville, respectively, was recently named the 2019 Business Person of the Year by the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce. It’s an honor she greatly appreciates. This has not
been the easiest year for her and to win this award really gives her a great feeling. Ann and her husband, Jim, purchased Florence Ace Hardware in 2009. Jim was a contractor and they felt this was a good fit for them. Prior to moving here, they lived in Florida where Ann worked at Jim’s family business, a private school with classes from kinder-
garten to sixth grade as well as a pre-K school. She taught pre-K and toddler classes, helped with summer camps and generally did whatever was necessary, even driving the bus. The couple moved to the Bitterroot because of the outdoor life and the fly fishing. Ann is an See BETHEA, page 3
Bitterroot Valley author Molly Hackett has written hundreds of newspaper columns over the past three decades answering questions about gardening in this part of the world and now she has updated and expanded her comments and put together a major new book on the subject using the same title for the book that she employed with her column – “More Dirty Fingernails.” Her book is a collection of new questions and answers that address the common woes that most gardeners encounter when they try to have a productive garden – covering eight major categories: vegetables, flowers, fruit, herbs, landscape, how to issues, problems and indoor gardening.
Seven sworn in as Eagle Scouts
See BOOK, page 9
Jonathan Schmitz (above, far left), US Navy and former Troop 1991 Eagle Scout, administered the oath at the recent Eagle Scout swearing in ceremony in Stevensville. New Troop 1991 Eagle Scouts, l to r, and their projects: Carlos Morales, constructed and installed a Veterans Memorial at Stevensville High School soccer fields; Cody Bradford, Painting & improvements to the Stevensville Clothes Closet free store; Dakota Johnson, did demolition for Victor Volunteer Fire Department’s new fire station remodel, Clayten Cochran, organized and managed a blood drive for the American Red Cross; Dale Sutton, improvements and maintenance to Stevensville’s Veterans Memorial Park; Everitt Mauler, built new horse shelter for Toby’s Legacy Equine Rescue in Stevensville; Reagan Yaskus, organized and produced an all day variety show to benefit the Stevensville Playhouse theater. Above, far right: “The Eagles Nest,” local Eagle Scouts in attendance to honor the new Eagle Scout recipients. The seven new Eagle Scouts organized hundreds of hours of community service (estimated more than 350 hours) and earned a combined total of more than 160 merit badges in less than two years. Their Scout Master is James Higginson. Pictured at right with the flags, l to r: Eagle Scouts Reagan Yaskus, Ryan Horlacher, Coltin Mauler, two members of “Sons of the American Legion” and Eagle Scout trumpeter Cody Bradford playing the National Anthem. Michael Howell photos.