Judge blocks massive logging project in southern Montana
(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.”
https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-blocks-massive-logging-project-in-southern-montana/
= new reply since forum marked as read
