Kootenai Timber Plan Challenged by Green Groups Largely Upheld

The Ninth Circuit gave federal agencies a partial win in a legal battle with environmental groups over a plan to harvest timber in Montana’s Kootenai National Forest as part of vegetation management efforts.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service used well-established data on the grizzly bear population, but the US Forest Service didn’t take a hard look at unauthorized road use, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in an unpublished opinion Monday. The panel reversed several earlier findings from a Montana federal court, which sent the issue back to the agencies for further review.

Environmental groups ...