A federal judge has blocked a major logging project in southern Montana that would have removed roughly 16,500 acres of pine trees in the Custer Gallatin National Forest, just north of Yellowstone National Park. Senior U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled Thursday that the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of the plan violated the National Environmental Policy Act, citing the agency’s reliance on a condition-based management approach that did not identify the locations of 56.8 miles of temporary roads or fully consider their impact on grizzly bear habitat.
Condition-based management delays site-specific decisions until field reviews are conducted, meaning the Forest Service had only preliminarily designated areas for logging without specifying the exact areas to be cleared or the precise road configurations needed. Molloy emphasized that the location of roads, rather than their total mileage, is critical for assessing effects on “secure habitat” for grizzly bears. His decision partially overturned earlier recommendations from a magistrate judge that had sided with the Forest Service.
The South Plateau Landscape Area Treatment Project targets parts of Montana’s Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, home to old-growth forests that store carbon and support diverse wildlife. The Forest Service initially approved the project in 2022, asserting that neither grizzly bears nor Canada lynx populations would be endangered. Environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Native Ecosystems Council, and Wildearth Guardians, filed lawsuits challenging the plan. The court consolidated the cases and allowed Sun Mountain Lumber to intervene as a defendant. Conservation advocates hailed the ruling as a victory for wildlife and public lands, noting that it underscores the need for detailed, site-specific planning before moving forward with large-scale logging projects.