ELR Citation: 54 ELR 20040
No(s). CV 22-96-M-DLC-KLD (D. Mont. Mar 12, 2024) (DeSoto, J.)

A magistrate judge recommended summary judgment be granted in part and denied in part for environmental groups in a challenge to the Forest Service's 2018 revision to the forest management plan for Flathead National Forest. The groups argued the Forest Service and FWS failed to rationally consider the threats to grizzly bears and bull trout, in violation of the ESA. The judge found the groups were entitled to summary judgment on claims regarding grizzly bears, insofar as FWS failed to consider the impact of ineffective road closures on the 2011 baseline and grizzly bear populations, and on their claims regarding bull trout, insofar as FWS failed to consider effects of allowing culverts to remain on impassible roads. But she found the Services were entitled to summary judgment insofar as FWS properly addressed the impacts of unused roads and increased roadbuilding on grizzly bears and sedimentation impacts of unused roads, unauthorized motor use, and increased roadbuilding on bull trout. The judge recommended that the provisions of FWS' revised biological opinion that violated the ESA be remanded without vacatur to the Services for further consideration.