Our work and play are dedicated to conserving community and quiet habitat for fish, wildlife and people. Established in 1984 (Tax ID #81-0423034), we work to:
- Conserve the Peace and Quiet essential to public health and the health of our native ecosystems.
- Ensure timber sale programs on public lands truly sustain water quality, fish and wildlife.
- Pursue these goals through public education and public involvement whenever possible, and through administrative appeals and lawsuits when necessary.
Swan View Coalition has joined a lawsuit opposing the Trump administration's attempt to repeal protection of threatened and endangered species habitat! Repealing the Endangered Species Act regulatory definition of “harm” to listed species would allow their habitats to be destroyed without causing the species any unlawful “harm.”
The move is illegal, in part because harming species through habitat destruction is prohibited by the ESA's statutory language. The regulatory definition repealed by the administration has been on the books for 50 years.
“Roads built for logging and other human access destroy grizzly bear habitat and the bear's ability to safely use its habitat,” said Keith Hammer, Swan View Coalition Chair. “Repealing the harm rule allows industry to devastate the habitat grizzly bears and many other wildlife species depend on for their survival.”
Swan View and other groups are being represented by Earthjustice. You can read their full press release here and their Court Complaint here.
You can find the administration's final rule on the regulation change here.
You can read Earthjustice's 2025 comments on behalf of 66 groups against the proposed rule here.
You can read the Washington State Standard's news article about the lawsuit here.
You can help support our work by joining others in making a donation today!
Our Winter-Spring newsletter reports on Trump administration efforts to convince you the only healthy forest is a logged forest and how we are fighting back with lawsuits like the one we just filed against the West Reservoir logging and road building project!
You can help by making a donation that will be matched/doubled by the Cinnabar Foundation!
Below is the table of contents. Click here to view or download our newsletter as a pdf.
A big THANK YOU to those of you who have made donations that support our continuing work!
Won't you join them and make a donation today?"
Fish, wildlife and people are counting on us - and you!
June 5, 2026 UPDATE: With no response from the federal government to their 60-day Notice of Intent, Earthjustice attorneys for Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan today filed the threatened lawsuit in U.S. District Court. Click here for their press release. Click here for the lawsuit Complaint. Scroll down for more background and the Notice of Intent.
Click here to read a comprehensive article about this in the Flathead Beacon.
March 24, 2026: Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan on March 24 filed notice they will sue the federal government for approving the Flathead National Forest's West Reservoir logging and road building project without completing interagency consultation required under the Endangered Species Act. The law requires the groups provide 60 days formal notice before filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
The logging project would build 4.7 miles of new logging roads, block the entrance in an attempt to make them impassable to motor vehicles, but not count them in Total Road Density, which cannot be increased in order to protect threatened grizzly bears and bull trout from habitat displacement and road sediment in streams. In response to the groups' previous lawsuit against the Flathead Forest Plan, a federal judge in 2024 faulted the agencies for not counting “impassable” roads in Total Road Density and ordered a new biological opinion be written for the Flathead Forest Plan, something which has yet to be completed.
“The entire timber sale area already has too many roads and the Forest Service admits this is harming grizzly bears,” said Swan View Coalition Chair Keith Hammer. “Yet the agency is attempting to fake an emergency and build even more damaging roads rather than consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service on how to fix the problem. They can paint it with whatever brush they want - reducing wildfire risk, improving forest health and resiliency - they'll use whatever excuse they can come up with to put public logs in private sawmills.”
The groups are being represented by Earthjustice. Click here to read their press release.
Click here to read their 60-day Notice of Intent to File Suit.
Click here to read a comprehensive article about this in the Flathead Beacon.
Your comments are needed by April 1 to prevent the 5-fold expansion of the private Holland Lake Lodge sewer at public expense!
Taxpayers will pay for it, but the private Lodge will get all of the increased sewage capacity!
Your comments are due by April 1, using the online form at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=68935 . If that form isn't working, you can email your comments to Swan Lake District Ranger Sarah Canepa at sarah.canepa@usda.gov or mail her at 200 Ranger Station Road, Bigfork, MT 59911.
Here are some suggested comments to make or add to your own:
a. We don’t want over $3 million of public taxpayer money spent to build a huge sewer system that primarily benefits the private owners of Holland Lake Lodge and provides opportunity for them to greatly expand their operations on public land!
b. The current sewage system can meet current capacity for 25 years if repaired at far less expense, rather than having the sewage lagoons enlarged by five times, requiring some 1500 dump truck loads of fill to build the berms to contain the enlarged lagoons.
c. We further object to the private Holland Lake Lodge being allotted all of the increased sewer capacity while the public Holland Lake Campground maintains its current share of the sewage capacity – resulting in a 90% private:10% public split of the capacity.
d. You cannot use a Categorical Exclusion from preparing an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement for this scale of a sewage treatment facility.
e. An EIS is also required to examine the cumulative impacts of the connected actions of the size of the sewage plant that will then provide for expansion of the Holland Lake Lodge facilities – which were granted a Forest Service permit without firstly submitting an Operations Plan.
These suggestions are taken from our comment letter, which you can see here, along with 3 excellent graphics created by Save Holland Lake.
You can read about the Forest Service's proposal at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/flathead/projects/68935 .
You can get the bigger picture by reading or watching KPAX TV News' coverage of a public meeting in this matter here.
You can revisit our protests over the Lodge being granted a Forest Service Special Use Permit without firstly filing an Operating Plan here.
Thank you for taking a few moments by April 1 to let the Forest Service know what you think of this proposal.
Fish, wildlife and people are counting on you!
Your comments are needed now to stop the commercial overcrowding of the Flathead's Wild and Scenic Rivers!
The Flathead National Forest and Glacier National Park have released their draft Comprehensive River Management Plan and Environmental Assessment. They ask for your comments by March 13!
In spite of public complaints, proposed user capacities have been increased another 24% over what was proposed one year ago and commercially permitted service days are proposed to increase over existing levels by up to 12 times!
Please let the agencies know you want the vast majority of the allocated use to be for everyday citizens, not commercial river outfitters - and that you don't want the already-excessive use levels expanded!
You can submit your comments via the portal at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//CommentInput?Project=56536 . If the portal isn't working, simply email your comments to Ranger Rob Davies at robert.davies@usda.gov or mail them to him at Hungry Horse Ranger Station, PO Box 190340, Hungry Horse, MT 59919.
Here are some suggested points to make:
- Actual commercial use in the past five years on the Middle Fork has been twice the permitted level of 35,713 service days. This cannot be rewarded by quadrupling the permitted service days there, nor by increasing permit limits by 12 times in the North Fork!
- The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act requires the FS to protect and enhance the river's Outstanding Remarkable Values, such as uncrowded recreational opportunities, which have already been degraded. Permitted commercial use must be reduced, not expanded!
- Listen to the public testimony you have asked for, acknowledge that user capacity is already being exceeded, and don't simply expand user capacity limits!
- Decrease commercial fishing trips where threatened bull trout are being harmed by overfishing.
- Activate your online Public Reading Room so people can learn from one another's comments during the public comment period. Saying you won't activate it until after the public comment period is closed defeats the purpose!
For more ideas and details, Swan View's comment letter is here.
For more details about the negative effects to the already-dwindling bull trout population, Friends of the Wild Swan's comment letter is here.
You can find the government's documents here.
Our prior “scoping” alert of a year ago in this matter is located here.
Thank you for taking a few minutes to help provide your Wild and Scenic Rivers the protection they deserve!
Your comments are needed by January 15 on a 68,000 acre logging and burning project along the Middle Fork Flathead River, including the Wild and Scenic River corridor, roadless lands, and proposed Wilderness areas!
Also included in the Granite Moccasin Project are already-logged lands where logging, road building and culvert failures (like the one pictured above) have already increased sediment in a westlope cuthroat trout stream by almost 12-fold - and yet the Forest Service wants to build another 8 miles of logging roads and log even more!
This project is being fast-tracked under new “emergency authorities,” so this may be your only opportunity to comment!
Please take a few moments and consider submitting the following comments at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=68919 (or just email your comments to Ranger Davies at robert.davies@usda.gov if you have any trouble):
1- Do not log and build roads in the Pinnacle Creek watershed, where a 1993 Forest Service Environmental Impact Statement concluded that existing roads had increased sediment yield to that creek by nearly 12-fold and that “Roads will continue to generate sediment indefinitely unless they are restored to a pre-road condition.”
2- Do not log and build roads in the Skyland area, which is far from the Highway 2 power line and transportation corridor - and also has a history of unstable soils, road slumps and culvert failures.
3- While removing trees that can strike power lines may help prevent wildfires, logging and thinning forests actually makes them drier, windier and more prone to rapid fire spread.
4- First complete the Forest Plan amendment you promised in 2022 to clarify what types of activities are allowed and not allowed in areas the Plan recommends be added to the National Wilderness Preservation System - before planning prescribed burns and whitebark pine restoration that may involve motorized equipment in proposed Wilderness and roadless areas.
5- Exercise your discretion under the emergency authority and prepare an in-depth Draft Environmental Impact Statement, then release it for a 90-day public comment period before finalizing it. Past EIS's show you have big problems to fix in this area, and not make worse!
You can read our comment letter here. You can read our much shorter letter-to-the-editor here.
You can learn more about this project in this Flathead Beacon article or by visiting the Project Web Page.
Thank you for taking a few moments to help stop the Forest Service from over-logging and over-roading our National Forests, using the threat of wildfire as a smokescreen!
Fish, wildlife and people are depending on you!
Our Holidays Newsletter reports on 2025 accomplishments, how our members have helped accomplish them, the joy and beauty of our Swan Ranger reports, and how you can oppose Trump's gutting of the Endangered Species Act in a matter of minutes!
It also reminds you that a generous donor will match your donations up to $15,000 by the end of this year! Please help us meet this challenge and double your donations!
Below is the table of contents. Click here to view or download our newsletter as a pdf.
A big THANK YOU to those of you who have made donations that support our continuing work!
Won't you join them and make a donation today?
Fish, wildlife and people are counting us us - and you!
Our Fall Newsletter reports on the Forest Service turned politically partisan, Big Tech gobbling up public resources, progress on road closure monitoring, how we can turn lemon impediments into lemonade, and our upcoming membership meeting November 16!
It also reminds you that a generous anonymous donor will match your donations up to $15,000 by the end of this year! Please help us meet this challenge and double your donations!
Below is the table of contents. Click here to view or download our newsletter as a pdf.
A big THANK YOU to those of you who have made donations that support our continuing work!
Won't you join them and make a donation today?
Fish, wildlife and people are counting us us - and you!
Our Summer Newsletter reports on two citizen oversight victories, asks you to comment on Trump's plan to rescind roadless land protections by Sept 19, and announces Keith Hammer has been given FWN's 2025 “Activist of the Year Award!”
It also reminds you that Cinnabar Foundation will once again match your donations up to $4,000 this summer! Please help us finish up this challenge!
Below is the table of contents. Click here to view or download our newsletter as a pdf.
A big THANK YOU to those of you who have made donations that support our continuing work!
Won't you join them and make a donation today?
Fish, wildlife and people are counting us us - and you!
Page: 12345678910111213141516171819→
