Conservation groups sue to stop Montana logging project
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Conservation groups have sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to stop a logging project in Montana's Garnet Mountains.
Wildlife advocates said the project threatens a migration corridor for grizzly bears and other animals. The Clark Fork Face Project, about 30 minutes east of Missoula, would allow logging on nearly 17,000 acres of land overseen by the BLM.
Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said the effort would sever vital connectivity corridors for wildlife navigating between the Northern Continental Divide, Greater Yellowstone and Bitterroot ecosystems.
"The Garnet mountains are an important wildlife corridor for carnivores such as grizzly bear, lynx and wolverines," Garrity explained.
Despite the lawsuit, the BLM started logging in the Garnet earlier this week. Garrity noted the Alliance will ask the court for an injunction to stop clear-cutting until the case is decided. The BLM argued the project will improve forest health and reduce hazardous wildfire fuels across a majority of the area.
Garrity countered the Garnet Mountains are geographically critical to the grizzlies, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
"Scientists say for grizzly bears to be recovered, we once again have to have one connected population of grizzly bears in the northern Rockies," Garrity emphasized. "Otherwise, there's a big risk of inbreeding."
Garrity added the conservation groups plan to amend their complaint to also sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its role in the Clark Fork Face Project.
