Wednesday, July 09, 2025
64.0°F

Judge wants more study on Condon project

Sam Wilson | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 years, 5 months AGO
by Sam Wilson
| January 15, 2016 6:32 PM

Logging won’t happen anytime soon on the Flathead National Forest’s Glacier Loon project after a federal district judge denied the agency’s request to lift an injunction on the 37,320-acre project west of Condon.

In an order issued Wednesday, Judge Donald Molloy said the U.S. Forest Service needs to complete a new environmental analysis for the project.

He had ruled in favor of Friends of the Wild Swan and other groups in September 2014.

“The Forest Service tried to circumvent their obligation to involve the public in the re-analysis,” Arlene Montgomery, program director for Friends of the Wild Swan, said in a press release. “We are pleased that the court required them to revise their environmental assessment with full public review.”

The initial ruling found that forest officials had improperly evaluated grizzly bear protections and had concluded the project would not significantly affect bull trout and water howellia — a threatened plant species found in Montana only in the wetlands of the Swan Valley.

“The agencies considered the relevant factors and articulated a rational connection between the facts surrounding the project and its impact on all three species,” Molloy’s Wednesday ruling stated.

However, he wrote that the forest still must complete a supplemental environmental analysis to be in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

The Glacier Loon Project calls for logging and fuel reduction on 1,405 acres of forest land near the Swan Valley’s Lindbergh Lake.

It would also require the construction of about 6 miles of temporary roads and decommissioning of 8.4 miles of existing roads.

The Swan View Coalition, Friends of the Wild Swan, the Native Ecosystems Council and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies sued the forest over the Glacier Loon Project in 2013.


Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.

MORE IMPORTED STORIES

Court puts temporary hold on two Flathead Forest timber projects
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 6 years, 3 months ago
Court puts temporary hold on two Flathead Forest timber projects
Bigfork Eagle | Updated 6 years, 3 months ago
Judge still weighing Glacier Loon project's impacts
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 6 years, 9 months ago

ARTICLES BY SAM WILSON

February 24, 2016 5:37 a.m.

Filmmakers fined $5,950 for bull trout violations

The owners of a Missoula-based film company were recently  issued 38 state and 11 federal citations for violating bull trout regulations and filming illegally in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

March 30, 2016 4:56 p.m.

Hatchery objects to Creston bottling plant

In a formal objection filed earlier this month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service challenged the Montana Department of Natural Resources’ determination that a proposed water bottling plant in Creston would not adversely affect the nearby fish hatchery.

May 27, 2016 1:58 p.m.

Panel opposes shooting-range plan

At a packed hearing Thursday night to consider a proposed shooting range near Echo Lake, the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee voted unanimously in opposition to the proposal after local residents criticized its potential safety, noise and environmental impacts.