Questioning federal management of Ross Creek Cedars

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Roadless Rule hearing in Libby by Wild Montana and a coalition of groups to take testimony and comments on an issue the U.S. Forest Service wouldn’t convene as they set about dismantling its protections.

This weekend I spent looking over the damage caused by the Dec. 2025 floods in the Ross Creek drainage and the Giant Cedars Scenic Area.

What I saw and determined; let aside the atmospheric rivers of rain and other acts of God, was gross mismanagement by the U.S. Forest Service on their access and logging road system.

Logged in the early 1970s, the extensive road system in the Ross Creek drainage and adjacent Mt. Vernon has been neglected for decades. It appears that undersized and blocked culverts are what contributed, if not led to the destruction in the drainage.

Add to this near total destruction of the nearly $1 million worth of improvements that were done in the Giant Cedars Scenic Area.

All this begs questions; why should we trust the U.S. Forest Service with the roadless lands, much less any of their development?

Gutted by the Trump Administration, the Forest Service has too few personnel and funding to manage what they already have. Why grant them more responsibility when they cannot properly manage what they currently have?

If as a people we protect what we need and cherish, then why isn’t our roadless wild land legacy one of them? As Lincoln County works to reinvent itself into a tourist destination, then what cost is the Ross Creek Cedars Scenic Area destruction to that transformation?

Cesar Hernandez, Heron, Montana