NEWS RELEASE



contact   Larry McLaud, 208-882-1010
              Chuck Pezeshki 208-835-2999
              Laird Lucas, 208-342-7024
              Al Espinosa 208-882-6473
              Grant Meyer   520-443-0166


February 2, 1999

 Fish Bate Project Will Degrade Public Lands

 Conservation groups charge the Fish Bate Project on the Clearwater
National Forest is illegal because it will damage water quality and fish
habitat in streams already below required standards.

The area is also prone to landslides, or mass movements of soils into the
creeks, as the Clearwater forest experienced in the winters of 1995 and
1996, and the proposal will increase risks for further landslides.

In a 40-page brief filed in Federal District Court last week, the
conservation groups claim the Forest Service will violate the National
Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act if it proceeds the  with
Fish Bate project.

"The further deforestation called for in the Fish Bate Alternative 7 will
cumulatively and substantially increase the already high risk factors for
mass movement events in the project area," declared Grant Meyer, an Idaho
Falls native who is a professor of geology at Middlebury College in
Vermont. Meyer began studying the Clearwater basin geology in 1978 for the
U.S. Geological Survey and the Forest Service. Meyer submitted a 25-page
supporting declaration for the plaintiffs.

On the subject of fisheries, F. Al Espinosa Jr., the former Fisheries
Biologist for the Clearwater forest for almost 20 years, declared, "it is
clear from the administrative record that virtually all of the major
streams in the Fish Bate area are below Forest Plan standards with regard
to fisheries habitat or other relevant water quality standards."

Espinosa goes on to declare in his 40-page declaration, "the Fish Bate
project will almost certainly create measurable increases in sedimentation
to project area streams (including the North Fork) within the foreseeable
time frame of the project impacts."

Fish Bate is named after two creeks in the North Fork Clearwater River
drainage, about 30 miles northeast of Pierce.

The brief on Fish Bate is part of lawsuit against the Clearwater Forest
in December 1997 claiming the Clearwater violated a Settlement Agreement
with conservation groups in 1993, which requires no further water quality
degradation.

The conservation groups now seek to stop the Fish Bate Project, because it
would cause irreparable harm to public lands.  The proposal would
eliminate 888 acres of old growth through logging and increase sediment in
streams, according to Forest Service documents and independent, scientific
analysis.

"The Forest Service has broken the promises it made in the 1993
Settlement Agreement to improve water quality,"  said Larry McLaud.  "The
mudslides in 1995-1997 are evidence of the problems from past projects like
Fish Bate," he said.

 The coalition of conservation groups include Idaho Conservation League,
Friends of the Clearwater, Clearwater Biodiversity Project, The Wilderness
Society, Idaho Rivers United, The Ecology Center, The Lands Council, Land
and Water Fund of the Rockies.

Note:  The current brief is connected to a brief filed in mid-January on
old growth, described in a News Release put on January 28, 1999.  For a
copy please call 208-882-1010.#######