A Montana-based federal judge on Monday flunked a Forest Service timber harvest plan in a courthouse that’s well-known to environmentalists and is about to change with the arrival of its first Trump administration appointee.
Capping a case filed three years ago, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen ruled that federal agencies improperly authorized the so-called Knotty Pine logging project planned for the Kootenai National Forest in northwest Montana. In part, Christensen cited inadequate consideration of how logging roads might threaten bears.
“The failure to consider ineffective closures and illegal roads requires additional [National Environmental Policy Act] review in order to adequately analyze the impacts of illegal roads on grizzly bears,” Christensen wrote.
The 74-year-old appointee of former President Barack Obama is now taking senior status, following the Senate confirmation this month of President Donald Trump’s nominee, former federal prosecutor and state legislator William Mercer.
