Groups sue to stop logging in Flathead National Forest

Groups Say Flathead Logging Project Sidesteps Endangered Species Imperatives

Local conservation groups on June 5 sued the Flathead National Forest for authorizing a timber sale in grizzly bear and bull trout habitat under an emergency exception to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Rather than examine the potential effects of logging road construction on federally protected species, plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan, said the federal agency illegally invoked an “emergency cons…

Groups sue to stop logging in Flathead National Forest

A U.S. Forest Service road is pictured in Flathead National Forest north of Columbia Falls on Aug. 8, 2021. (Jordan Hansen / Daily Montanan)Conservation groups in the Flathead Valley are suing the U.S. Forest Service over the West Reservoir Project in the Flathead National Forest. The groups, supported by EarthJustice, say that the project, which will include 4.7 miles of new roads, 2,001 acres of logging and more than 4,600 acres of prescribed …