It calls for preserving and expanding habitat types that are currently
in short supply. It recommends protections for areas that are unroaded,
and old growth stands that have dwindled by as much as 80 percent,
for
some species, over the last 150 years.
It projects a basin-wide 21 percent increase in merchantable timber
harvests, but just an 8 percent increase in western Montana, where
there
are wet forest types that provide habitat for creatures such as the
recently listed lynx. It …
