ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20142
No(s). 2:21-CV-00244-BLW (D. Idaho Jul 23, 2021) (Winmill, J.)

A district court temporarily suspended a logging project in grizzly bear habitat in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. An environmental group argued the Forest Service's approval of the project violated NEPA. The court found that the Service's failure to apply the Healthy Forests Restoration Act's (HFRA's) definition of "wildland-urban interface" in determining whether the project area was excluded from NEPA requirements raised serious questions as to whether it lawfully invoked the HFRA's categorical exclusion for a forest restoration treatment project, and that the group made the requisite showing that its members would likely be irreparably harmed if the project was allowed to proceed without an evaluation of its environmental impact or adequate explanation of how it qualified for a categorical exclusion. The court therefore temporarily suspended the project.