Darroch-Eagle Timber Sale

[Bear Creek Council]

The Darroch-Eagle Timber Sale is a plan to log 2.1 million board feet of timber just north of Yellowstone National Park. This is one of "12 sales to provide $4.5 million to fund the final 2,563-acre purchase of the Gallatin II land exchange," reports the Billings Gazette (9/14/99). The goal of the swap is to turn 54,000 acres of public land in southwest Montana over to public ownership and to protect wildlife habitat.

Update!

November 10, 2005

On May 12, the Forest Service notified the 9th Circuit Court that “activity” would resume on the Darroch-Eagle project as of May 23.

The 9th Circuit responded on May 20: “Because no party has sought and successfully obtained reconsideration, this Court’s injunction prohibiting the Forest Service from allowing road construction and timber harvesting associated with the Darroch-Eagle timber sale remains in effect.”

The sale rose up again in June with the green light given for logging to resume on June 25th. The 9th circuit for a third time put the sale on hold pending a hearing in October, effectively putting a stop to all logging and road building for the 2005 season.

In yet another turn, the 9th Circuit upheld the sale in November, 2005. The approval allows RY Timber of Livingston to go ahead with plans to log the area.

Darroch-Eagle Links

• Gallatin National Forest Darroch-Eagle Creek Timber Sale Environmen...

• November 10, 2005. "Court Upholds Timber Sale" Casper Star Tribune
• June 27, 2005. "Federal Court Again Puts Temporary Brakes on Timber Sale" Billings Gazette
• October 3, 2004. "Appeals court temporarily halts Gallatin timber sale" Billings Gazette
• July 28, 2004. "Darroch Eagle Logging Starts". Bozeman Daily Chronicle
• July 28,2004. "Gallatin National Forest Service Timber Sale May Proceed". NEPA Blog
• July 27, 2004. "Future of Gardiner-Area Timber Sale Up in the Air" Bozeman Daily Chronicle
• July 24, 2004. "Activists Fight Gallatin Timber Sale". Billings Gazette
• June 11, 2004. "Forest Service reckless in approving Darroch Eagle" Bozeman Daily Chronicle
• April 28, 2004 "Comment on Darroch-Eagle timber sale unaccounted for". Bozeman Daily Chronicle
• April 20, 2004. "Forest Service resurrects timber sale near Gardiner" Bozeman Daily Chronicle
• March 31, 2004. "Wildlife left out in land deals" Bozeman Daily Chronicle
• February 2, 2004. "Timber Sale Back on Front Burner" Livingston Enterprise
• January 28, 2004. "Timber sale near Gardiner moves ahead" Bozeman Daily Chronicle
• January 7, 2004. "Timber sale south of Livingston stopped by environmentalists" Billings Gazette
• December, 2003. Environmental Law Institute News & Analysis. EndangeredLaws.org (bottom of page 7)
• Summer, 2003. "Undercutting National Forest Protections" Defenders of Wildlife (bottom of page 18)
• Winter, 2002. "When No Action is No Excuse - Court Finds Status Quo Not Good Enoug...". The Road RIPorter by Wildlands CPR.
• September 23, 2002. "Forest Service would have lost money on Darroch-Eagle sale". Bozeman Daily Chronicle
• September 17, 2002. "Logger Foes Win a Round". CBS News
• April 1, 2002. Native Ecosystems Council V. Dombeck. Appeal from the United States District Court
  for the District of Montana Jack D. Shanstrom, District Judge, Presiding
  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
  Argued and Submitted April 1, 2002—Seattle, Washington Filed September 16, 2002
• June 6, 2001. "Forestry officials admit timber sale probably won’t pay for land swap" Forests.org
• September 17, 1999. Logging Plan to Go Forward. River Currents Online