HQ Missive on Wilderness Watch Lawsuit Filed to Stop Wilderness Lookout

Eco Humor is Good for the Soul

The Recreation HQ does not often find itself in agreement with eco-lawsuits filed by left-wing environmental groups but today is different. Some of you may have seen articles about a recent lawsuit filed against the Forest Service by the anti-OHV group – Wilderness Watch. This suit is in regards to reconstruction of the Green Mountain Lookout in Washington's Glacier Peak Wilderness Area.

The suit basically takes the agency to task for doing a construction project in a federally designated Wilderness area without first performing site-specific NEPA.

Article on Lawsuit
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_lookout_lawsuit.html

Also ck out the group’s blog below:

Wilderness Watch Blog on Suit
http://wildernesswatch.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/building-new-history-in-wilderness/

You might remember several months ago the BlueRibbon Coalition and clients filed a similar lawsuit (projects down without project level NEPA) against the Forest Service for the illegal ripping of roads without site-specific NEPA.

Blog on BRC Suit to Stop Illegal Road Ripping on Six Rivers NF
http://thegeneralsrecreationden.blogspot.com/2010/05/historic-lawsuit-filed-in-northern.html

Stipulation Signed on the Six Rivers Suit to Solve the Issue
http://thegeneralsrecreationden.blogspot.com/2010/12/ohv-christmas-miracle-case-study-in.html

Many of us in the OHV community are all too aware of the many NEPA procedures that are required for the agency to build even 10 feet of new trail. Yet, it seems that for “projects” deemed worthy by government elites (road ripping, new lookouts in Wilderness Areas, landing strips in the King Range NCA ) are given a free pass.

HQ commends Wilderness Watch for not being hypocrites. Unlike eco-groups who defended the Forest Service’s right to rip roads (without project level NEPA) in the middle of winter and dump silt into a Wild and Scenic River, WW called it like they saw it. If you have to do project level NEPA to build a trail or small OHV staging area, you should have do to the same for construction of a new lookout in a Wilderness Area.

Sometimes a bit of “eco-humor” is good for the soul.

After you quit laughing... the outrage is that WA State OHV Funds were granted (without NEPA - a big blunder) to fund this project:

See page 3 of NOVA Grant Program for Green Mountain Project
http://www.rco.wa.gov/documents/rcfb/nova/NOVA2005FundedProjects.pdf