Land Agency Sued Over Southern Montana Tree Removal, Fire Plan

The Interior Department approved a vegetation removal and prescribed fire plan for nearly 1 million acres of land in southern Montana with few details and opportunities for the public to comment, environmental groups claim in a lawsuit filed Monday.

The challenge is among dozens of lawsuits environmental groups have filed challenging aspects of federal land logging, wildfire, and land management plans amid the Trump administration’s efforts to suppress and prevent wildfires and expand logging.

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and three other groups say the Bureau of Land Management’s plan, finalized in September, for 900,000 acres around Dillon, ...