US officials shut down more than 10,000-acre operation after uncovering illegal use of state property: 'Requires additional ... review'

A federal judge stopped a logging project because it imperiled threatened grizzly bears.

The plan to log and burn a large swath of the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem Recovery Zone in Montana ran afoul of the Endangered Species Act and other laws, Courthouse News Service reported. The U.S. Forest Service failed to properly consider unauthorized road use and its impact on the animals.

"This court has repeatedly held that it is arbitrary and capricious to not include illegal motorized use that it knows to occur into calculations, regardless of whether the use is chronic and site specific," U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen wrote.

"The failure to consider ineffective closures and illegal roads requires additional NEPA review in order to adequately analyze the impacts of illegal roads on grizzly bear."

In 2022, the Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation organizations sued the USFS, alleging the Knotty Pine Project's "massive clear-cuts" and increase in road densities would fragment grizzly habitat and increase mortality. Christensen granted an injunction in 2023, CNS noted, citing "a likelihood of irreparable injury."

Most grizzly bears are killed within one-third of a mile of a road, and the Cabinet-Yaak population is only around 45, which is less than half that of the recovery goal, per the center. This group of grizzlies declined 30% over five years from 2018 to 2023 and is "among the most imperiled" of six recovery communities in the contiguous United States.

The project was supposed to last 10 years. While logging and clearing vegetation can prevent wildfires and keep them from spreading rapidly, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies — another plaintiff — says untouched forests do those things better, maintaining moist land that is "shaded from the sun and protected from the wind."

The work of these charities — as well as that of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, WildEarth Guardians, and Native Ecosystems Council — ensured the enforcement of existing laws, highlighting the importance of such actions in protecting wildlife and the natural environment. It also shows the importance of government conservation measures, as without the rules about roads in protected spaces, the project may have been allowed to continue.

You can support the preservation of America's wild lands and animals by donating time and money. AWR, for example, is pushing to get the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act passed by Congress.

It says this is "one of the best opportunities to halt or stop what has been termed the Earth's 'sixth great extinction event' in the Northern Rockies, which are still home to most of the native species that were here when the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through 200 years ago."