Judge wants more study on Condon project

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.