Three environmental groups signaled Wednesday their intention to stop a 16,000-acre logging and prescribed-fire project located in a national forest west of Yellowstone National Park.
Federal judge halts Ripley logging project, orders Forest Service to do more work thewesternnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thewesternnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Lolo National Forest has dropped plans to defend logging and thinning the Soldier-Butler project in the Ninemile Ranger District west of Missoula after two federal court defeats.
A sweeping plan to use prescribed fire on hundreds of thousands of acres of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest has been halted well before any drip torches were dusted off.
The national forest in southeastern Idaho had proposed using controlled fire to regenerate up to 1.7 million acres of the landscape, one thatâs largely lacked natural wildfire, leading to thick understories, a dearth of aspen and decadent conifer stands.
But the Caribou-Targhee also sought to authorize that project using a âcategorical exclusionâ within the National Environmental Policy Act, which meant that analysis would have been minimal. Environmental advocacy groups and residents wrote in with concerns about the ambitious plans, and some of the issues they identified led to the projectâs demise.