Judge blocks massive logging project in southern Montana

A federal judge agreed with environmental advocates that the proposed project must identify where the temporary roads that can interfere with grizzly bears will be constructed.(CN) — A federal judge on Thursday vacated the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a massive logging project that would have cut down about 16,500 acres of pine trees in the Custer Gallatin National Forest in southern Montana, just north of Yellowstone National Park.Senior U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula, Montana, agreed with a collective of environmental advocates that the U.S. Forest Service failed to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act by relying on a condition-based management approach, which doesn’t identify the location of the 56.8 miles of temporary roads for the project and, as such, doesn’t adequately consider their impact on “secure habitat” for grizzly bears.Condition-based management defers specific decisions on how to proceed in specific locations until the Forest Service has conducted field reviews. Here, it means the Forest Service has preliminarily identified areas as suitable for logging without identifying the precise location and size of the area to be cleared, or the location and configuration of the temporary roads needed.“But what makes this case unique is the enduring dilemma of grizzly bears and roads,” Molloy, a Bill Clinton appointee, observed.“The Forest Service evaluated the impacts on the landscape if all 56.8 miles of temporary road were implemented at the same time and explained how it identified the likely location of those roads,” the judge said. “But it is the precise location of those roads, not their total mileage, that determines the impact they will have on grizzly bear secure habitat. And the Forest Service does not purport to analyze a ‘worst case’ scenario based on road placement, as opposed to mileage.”Molloy’s conclusions in part overturned the recommendations of a magistrate judge earlier this year who heard oral arguments on the parties’ motions for summary judgment and sided with the Forest Service.Representatives of the Forest Service didn’t immediately respond to a request on the judge’s ruling.The South Plateau Landscape Area Treatment Project is slated for a region of Montana’s Greater Yellowstone ecosystem comprised of old-growth trees that sequester carbon and provide habitat to several wildlife species. The Forest Service approved the project in 2022, concluding that neither the Canada lynx nor grizzly bear populations would be jeopardized.The Center for Biological Diversity and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies sued the Forest Service and the government over the logging plan in September 2023. In December, three more conservation groups — Gallatin Wildlife Association, Native Ecosystems Council and Wildearth Guardians — filed a separate suit challenging the same action. The court merged the cases and allowed Sun Mountain Lumber to intervene as a defendant.“This ruling makes it clear that agencies can’t just rubberstamp massive logging projects and promise to sort out the details later,” said Kristine Akland, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The court saw right through the Forest Service’s vague plans and determined that moving targets aren’t good enough, especially when threatened animals and treasured public lands are at stake. This is a great ruling for grizzlies, Canadian lynxes and the entire Yellowstone ecosystem.”Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing
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