A timber sale of diseased trees on the south side of the Boulder Mountain will apparently go forward now that U.S. Forest Service officials have rejected an appeal by environmental groups.
Harvesting of 21.1 million board feet of timber and burning and thinning areas on the Aquarius Plateau was approved in July by Dixie Forest Supervisor Hugh Thompson.Environmental groups then filed an appeal with the regional office of the Forest Service. But that agency has dismissed the appeals that were levied at the Jacob/ Swale Vegetation Management Project.
A review by the Forest Service concluded there was "no evidence that the responsible officer's decision violated law, regulation or policy." It was further concluded that the project would not adversely affect sensitive plant species.
The appeals decision, however, calls for Thompson to receive specific survey data by the Boulder Mountain Wilderness Committee relative to the presence of such plants. This will be considered as potential "new information" to determine if it has bearing on the proposal's environmental impacts, it was noted in the forest region's decision.
It was further stated that if the information is relevant, the forest supervisor could modify the project design to mitigate effects or provide a supplemental environmental impact statement.
But the project implementation can continue if Thompson determines that neither project modification nor an EIS supplement is needed. The Forest Service decision was handed down by Jack Blackwell, deputy regional forester.
The planned timber harvest is in the McGath Lake/Auger Hole Roadless Area. There would be no road construction.
Environmental organizations filing the appeal were the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Boulder Mountain Wilderness Committee and Friends of the Dixie and the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club. Their concerns voiced in the appeal documents were impacts on the roadless areas, Northern Goshawks, old-growth forest, future forest susceptibility to insects and disease outbreaks, and sensitive plant species.
The only way environmental groups could stop the sale now would be through the courts.