Dear Guardian,

Noise, exhaust, and dust fill the air as dirt-bikes and four wheelers barrel through the Flathead National Forest, splicing apart the forest and scaring a lone grizzly bear to abandon a carcass it was dining on.

For more than three decades this kind of damage from motorized use has run roughshod across the wild country of the Flathead. But now is your opportunity to reverse this destruction and forge a new path that will give the Flathead a chance to heal its scarred landscape.

The U.S. Forest Service is revising its plan for how to manage the Flathead’s 2.4 million acres over the next couple of decades, and needs your input. Tell the agency to prioritize the rugged wilderness and abundant wildlife that make the Flathead National Forest such an amazing place.

The new forest plan will identify what we can and can’t do on the forest, and how to best protect the forest’s streams, wildlife and wildlands. Right now, the Forest Service’s draft plan puts motorized use before the natural wild.

Instead of charting a new path towards a resilient future forest, the agency proposes to take away standards that protect water quality and wildlife from the bloated road system. The agency’s plan would also allow for more snowmobiles to intrude on the quiet winter landscape.

Your voice is crucial: urge the Forest Service to re-balance the uses on the forest and allow the scarred landscape to begin to heal.

Don’t let this opportunity to protect our wild places slip by. We need you to tell the Forest Service that it should celebrate and safeguard the forest’s natural resources, wildlife, and quiet recreation opportunities instead of devaluing the Flathead’s greatest assets to appease special motorized interests. Urge the agency to increase wilderness recommendations for roadless areas and protect vital grizzly bear, bull trout, lynx and wolverine habitat.

For the wild,

 

Greg Dyson
Wild Places Program Director
WildEarth Guardians
gdyson@wildearthguardians.org

 

 

photo credit: flickr creative commons, Wildlands CPR, Swan Range, Flathead National Forest, Keith Hammer or Jasper Carlton photo