16—Cold Mountain Cold Rivers Complaint

response to concerns that pre-monitoring had not been done and

yet the capture facility was being installed.

30.

On January 30, 2001, only after Plaintiffs sent the

January 5 NOI for failure to pre-monitor bald eagle nests prior

to installation of the bison capture facility, the Gallatin

National Forest amended Appendix V of the BA which is the

“Visual Monitoring Methods for the Horse Butte Bald Eagle

Nesting and Foraging Area. See Appendix V [to BA] (as amended

01/30/01). The Amended Appendix V was attached to the Forest

Supervisor’s response to Plaintiffs’ January 5, 2001 NOI. See

March 6, 2001 NOI response to Reynolds, Motl & Sherwood from

Dave Garber.

31.

Defendant Forest Service’s amended Appendix V

attempts to amend the bald eagle monitoring requirements

after the fact. However, the BO does not discuss, nor does

any document analyze or allow, such post-hoc amendments

without further environmental analysis. Pre-monitoring is

required, especially in circumstances such as this where

there has been consistent nest failure at all three eagle

nests since the implementation of the Horse Butte Bison

Capture Facility and hazing project.

32.

Pre-monitoring is especially critical in view of

the Eagle Management Plan’s unequivocal statement that the