Four conservation organizations are suing the Flathead National Forest in an effort to halt the Round Star logging project located 13 miles west of Whitefish near Tally Lake.  

The Round Star Project, first proposed in 2021, covers an area extending from Round Meadows to the northwest corner of Star Meadows. The project includes commercial timber harvest on up to 6,324 acres and noncommercial vegetation treatments on up to 2,866 acres.  

After a comment period in June 2022, the Flathead Forest released a draft decision with a 45-day period to object in August 2022.  

Representatives from the Montana Logging Association, the American Forest Resource Council and the Montana DNRC voiced support of the project, while Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Native Ecosystem Council, Friends of the Wild Swan and Swan View Coalition submitted objections.  

The Forest Service approved the final project in April 2024.  

There were two sales shortly thereafter; one to F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Company and one to Leever and Sons Forestry Management, with first implementations in June 2024.  

The project aims to reduce tree densities and fuel loadings within the wildland-urban interface to decrease the likelihood of stand-replacing fire, improve diversity and resilience of plant and tree communities, and contribute a mix of forest products for local economies.  

The majority of the project area was identified as part of the priority areas for focused attention on fuels reduction in the 2020 Montana Forest Action Plan and is partially located with the Connecting Fuels Treatments in the Salish Mountains and Whitefish Range Joint Chiefs' Landscape Restoration Partnership Project Area. 

The project also aims to expand recreation opportunities in the Round Meadow Cross-Country Ski Area by creating 5.6 miles of additional trails, 20 miles of permanent roads, 3.4 miles of temporary roads, and building infrastructure including additional parking, a warming shelter and equipment storage.  

Approximately 92% of the Round Star project area is in the wildland-urban interface. 

The four groups bringing on the lawsuit, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Council on Wildlife and Fish, Yellowstone to Uintas Connection, and Native Ecosystems Council, allege that the project is ill-conceived and encroaches on lynx, grizzly and elk habitat.  

“Lynx critical habitat is the worst place for clearcuts,” said Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, in a Jan. 9 press release. “The surest way to drive lynx to extinction is allowing Biden's Forest Service to continue their massive deforestation of the West. 

“It is a vital linkage area that provides habitat connectivity for a wide range of wildlife species moving between the Whitefish and Salish mountain ranges,” Garrity said.  

The four groups filed suit Jan. 8 in federal District Court in Missoula. 

Garrity said the lawsuit charges the Forest Service for violating the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act by not fully analyzing the impact of new roads, trails and clearcuts on wildlife and climate change.  

Garrity also alleges that the Forest Service used an “illegally-broadened definition” of the wildland urban interface.  

The U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies do not comment on pending litigation.