Montana Telecommunication Project Sent Back to Forest Service

The US Forest Service won its bid to take another look at its approval of a telecommunications project in a Montana national forest without vacatur after a federal court granted the request.

Wiping out the approval isn’t necessary because “the main procedural errors alleged—the failure to adequately scope the project and provide for public comment—are easily remedied on remand,” Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto of the US District Court for the District of Montana said Tuesday.

• Wilderness preservation groups sued the Forest Service in March 2024, claiming the agency installed telecommunications infrastructure in Montana’s Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest without sufficient ...