Holland Lake and the Bob Marshall Wilderness are once again threatened by potential new development and excessive recreation due to a flawed U.S. Forest Service permitting process for the Holland Lake Lodge north of Seeley Lake. The agency has failed to provide the public with enough information to know what impacts a new resort might have on Holland Lake and nearby public wildlands, including the cherished Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Wild critters in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and surrounding wildlands are already feeling the squeeze from recreation use. The public needs assurance that this permitting process is not a luxury development plan or attempt to expand recreational impacts disguised as a simple permit reissue. Due to widespread public opposition over plans to expand the Holland Lake Lodge and turn the resort into a luxury tourism destination complete with helitours, heliskiing, and helihiking, the previous plan came to a halt.
Now, the Forest Service is attempting to push through a new 20-year special use permit using a categorical exclusion. This is particularly concerning because the previous owners stated that operating the lodge is not financially viable without major expansion. Incredibly, the agency is not requiring a master development plan until after the new permit has been issued, when there is no longer an opportunity for public input. The public needs to know what the new permittees are up to before the permit goes through, not after. Even if the scope of the permittees' operations has not changed, the agency needs to assure the public that the facility won’t fall into disrepair, including leaking sewage lagoons, as it did under the last permittees. The commercialization of the area and the resulting hordes of people who could visit year-round would negatively impact wildlife and public lands surrounding the resort, including the Bob Marshall Wilderness and recommended wilderness.
“The Bob” is one of the crown jewels of the Wilderness System, with some of the best habitat for grizzly bears, Canada lynx, wolverine, elk, bull trout, and other native wildlife. More humans in the area would harm both wildlife that need secure habit and wilderness values such as solitude.
The Bob Marshall Wilderness is too important to leave it up to chance. Ask the Forest Service to publish the permit applicant’s master development plan and provide a full environmental assessment before issuing a 20-year permit. Submit your comments to the Forest Service by Wednesday, May 14 at this link: https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=67937 |
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Please speak in your own words, but make sure to raise the following points: - Without a master development plan it is impossible to know what the permit applicants plan to do over the next 20 years. The previous permittees said that the operation is not financially viable without expanding the operations of the lodge.
- Excessive recreation is already taking a toll on wildlife in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, including threatened grizzly bears, Canada lynx, and wolverines. If lodge operations expand over the next 20 years, these threatened species will come under even more stress and the pressures of habitat loss.
- The previous permit holders let the facility fall into disrepair, resulting in a sewage lagoon leak. The public needs assurance that this will not happen again.
- The Forest Service needs to provide a full environmental assessment, rather than shielding the permit applicants from the public comment process with a categorical exclusion. The public must know the potential cumulative effects of the 20-year operations, and “The Bob” deserves more than the perfunctory process of a categorical exclusion.
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Help us protect the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Wilderness around the country. A generous member has pledged to DOUBLE all first-time donations up to $30,000 this year. |
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