Montana Logging, Clear-Cutting Project Approval Draws Lawsuit

The U.S. Forest Service approved a logging project in Montana without properly considering the impacts to elk and without taking a hard look at the decline in goshawk nesting territories, conservation groups told a federal court in the state Wednesday.

The agency’s approval of the Horsefly Project violates the National Environmental Policy Act and National Forest Management Act, according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana.

The project at the center of the complaint filed by Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council is located in the Little Belt Mountains, about ...