Mission

View the Pole Creek timber project from above with media and stakeholders working to protect critical old-growth forests from irresponsible logging.

The Bighorn National Forest is one of the oldest government-protected forests in the U.S. It spans over one million acres and boasts historic sites, campgrounds, the Cloud Peak Wilderness, and over 1,200 miles of trails.

EcoFlight’s partners at Bighorn Audubon are working to protect the Bighorn Forest and preserve its diverse values. In its Pole Creek Vegetation Management Project, the Forest Service plans to allow for a timber project above Buffalo in the Clear Creek-Crazy Woman drainage. We flew above the 92,000 acre proposed Pole Creek Project site where, if approved, clearcutting, thinning, and 25 to 28 miles of “temporary” roads will be constructed. The project will have negative impacts on breeding, migrating and resident forest birds, wildlife, water quality, and overall forest health. Bighorn Audubon is calling on the USFS to conduct a full-scale environmental assessment. Old-growth forests in the Bighorns could be destroyed, yet the Forest Service's environmental impact study does not disclose an inventory of old growth trees nor ensure protection of old growth trees in the BNF area of proposed action. Old-growth forests are critical carbon sinks, and the 2022 Executive Order 14072 mandates that old and mature growth forests must be conserved and restored.

Click for the photos, aerial GoPro video, and geo-referenced photos (download then open in Google Earth)