Montana logging project can continue despite environmental concerns

Hillel Aron

(CN) — A major logging project in Montana can continue after a federal judge on Tuesday denied a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by four environmental groups.

Last year, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved the Round Star logging project, which covers 28,300 acres of land about 13 miles west of the city of Whitefish. About 78% of the land is federally owned, part of the Flathead National Forest. Another 7% of the land is state-owned, while the rest is private. The agencies also approved the construction of nearly 20 miles of permanent roads in the national forest.

Of particular concern to the environmentalists suing to stop the project is the grizzly bear, listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

"Project activities like logging, precommercial thinning, and road building will negatively impact grizzly bears and mature old growth dependent species like the pileated woodpecker and Canada lynx," wrote Steve Kelly, executive director for one of the plaintiffs, Council on Wildlife and Fish, in a declaration filed with the motion for a preliminary injunction. "When I go to the project area, I go with the hopes of seeing these species. The Project will reduce the habitat for these species, which will lessen my ability to view them."

The four conservation groups — Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Native Ecosystems Council, Council on Wildlife and Fish and Yellowstone to Uintas Connection — sued to stop the logging in January, and filed their motion for a preliminary injunction months later. By that time, the logging was already underway. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto found that the timing worked against the plaintiffs.

"Several timber sales authorized by the project were well underway by the date of oral argument on the instant motion," the judge wrote in her 21-page ruling. "This delay weighs against a finding of irreparable harm, particularly given the ongoing timber sales."

Though the timing of the motion wasn't a dealbreaker for the motion, DeSoto also found that the plaintiffs are unlikely to succeed on the merits of the case.

The environmentalists argued that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to conduct an appropriate "cumulative effects analysis" for how the whole project, including the new roads, would affect the grizzly bear. But the judge disagreed: "It is clear that [the Fish and Wildlife Service] sufficiently addressed the likely effects of roads on grizzly bear."

The judge added: "Plaintiffs have failed to raise a substantial question going to the merits of their claim that the project cumulative effects analysis is fatally deficient."

The ruling means the logging project can continue, though the lawsuit remains active.

Mike Garrity, the executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said in an email that the plaintiffs disagreed with the judge's decision.

"Most grizzly bears are killed within 1/3 of a mile of logging roads," Garrity wrote in the email. "The Round Star project will harm grizzly bears in violation of the Endangered Species Act."

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the ruling.