Chuck Oliver, Darby district ranger, said the forest has approved the county's request to take about 1,000 cubic yards of rock out of the old quarry, which has seen very little use in the past 20 years.
“For now, it's a one-time use and the county will have to be done by Nov. 1,” said Oliver.
That's because a coalition of homeowners, climbers and recreationists plan to file suit in federal court against the U.S. Forest Service. In part, the lawsuit would allege the forest violated the National Environmental Policy Act by approving the gravel extraction without significant review.
“We will file a complaint on NEPA and ask for a preliminary injunction against the mining,” said Tim Bechtold, attorney for the Lost Horse Canyon Coalition.
The Forest Service's decision hardly took coalition members by surprise.
“It's the same old thing,” said Steve Porcella, a scientist at Rocky Mountain Labs and a climber who has pioneered numerous routes in the canyon. “They want to put short-term rock needs ahead of the recreational value and use in this canyon. They just don't care about increasing recreational use in the canyon. They're into resource extraction, and that's more important to them than recreation.”
Oliver claims the Forest Service hasn't been able to substantiate claims that the canyon is more heavily used in recent years, but Porcella and Bechtold said that's laughable.
“We're not seeing the use that they claim occurs up here,” Oliver said.
Responded Porcella: “That's just a bald-faced lie, because we're seeing more people than ever climbing in Lost Horse. Particularly since the book came out. Use is just way up.”
The book, by Joe Josephson and First Ascent Press, is a new climbing guide to Lost Horse, which is considered a climbing gem because of its solid granite and numerous crack systems.
“This has become the most popular climbing destination in the Bitterroot, and it's one of the best places in the state,” Bechtold said. “The use is very significant, and the agency has ignored that.”
Lost Horse was a very different place when the quarry, which is located several miles west of the Lost Horse Resort, ran more actively. The canyon was, of course, a path into the doorstep of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, but it was lightly settled.
Now the canyon hosts more campers, fisherfolk and full-time residents than ever before. The most significant change, however, is climbing, which has taken off on the towering walls above the quarry and amid the boulders scattered around the forest.
Climbers began taking a serious look at the canyon in the mid-1990s, but the sport has really taken off since 2000, with dozens of routes being put up on the granite cliffs.
“All said and done and considering the accessible potential still awaiting, it would be fair to argue Lost Horse is the best overall climbing area in the state of Montana,” Josephson writes in the new climbing guide.
When the county started talking last year about using the Lost Horse quarry for some of its gravel needs, climbers and homeowners came together to argue against the resumption of mining in the canyon.
“We've been asking why taxpayer dollars are being spent to do this, where nobody wants it and the county doesn't even know what it's going to cost them,” said homeowner Mark Berman. “But this has been ramrodded down our throats.”
The objection that the Forest Service has bullied Lost Horse users and residents surfaced when the agency used what's called a “categorical exclusion” to approve the project without the higher levels of review required by NEPA.
The exclusion was based on the premise that less than five acres would be used for gravel operations.
“It's 4.99 acres and it's laughable,” said Bechtold. “It's a contrived position and I don't think it would hold up to inspection by the court. This is a major recreation area, and under NEPA they should have done an environmental assessment.”
Oliver said the agency has followed its procedures correctly and has done what it can to diminish the downside of the quarry's use. To that end, the pit will only be used from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, Oliver said.
The amount of material the county plans to remove should amount to about 100 truckloads, Oliver said, and those trucks shouldn't be traveling the dirt road until most residents have already gone to work.
“We've done what we felt we could to minimize the impacts,” said Oliver. “We haven't done away with all the concerns, but the only way to do that was to not do the project.”
Now, with a lawsuit on the way, the project is threatened anyway.
“The Forest Service seems to want to turn this canyon into an industrial site,” said Porcella. “We're not surprised that they're going to pursue their mining agenda, and we're going to try to stop it.”
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.
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