By Monique Merrill | Courthouse News
The approval and subsequent court-ordered obstruction of the U.S. Forest Service’s “Black Ram Project” in Montana’s Kootenai National Forest is up for a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to sort out as the court heard from multiple sides on Thursday.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Yaak Valley Forest Council and WildEarth Guardians sued the federal government days after it approved the Black Ram Project in the Three Rivers Ranger District of the Kootenai National Forest in northwest Montana in June 2022.
The project would “clearcut forest, destroy and fragment habitat, displace wildlife, alter hydrology and adversely affect the area’s tiny grizzly population,” the groups argue, rather than promote resilient vegetation, improve watersheds and the sustainability of timber products and reduce the potential for high-intensity wildfires as the agency had intended.