U.S. Forest Service

Environmental groups sued the Kootenai National Forest today, June 30, over its approval of a controversial logging project in Northwest Montana.

Under the “moderate” danger, officials say fires can start from most accidental causes. Fire Prevention Specialist Anna Bateson says recreators should be sure to thoroughly douse any campfires with water and avoid parking campers and trailers on dry grasses.

The Kootenai National Forest finalized a contentious logging project on Tuesday after a court-ordered evaluation found that the Black Ram project won’t severely impact grizzly bears and other threatened species. But environmental groups are pushing back against that finding.

The Biden administration made good on a promised, but long-delayed pay raise for federal firefighters on Tuesday. The first of those temporary payments should be delivered next month.

Federal and state land managers in Montana are not yet fully staffed with their usual number of seasonal firefighters. During its hiring process, the U.S. Forest Service has faced the same workforce shortage pressures affecting the private sector.

Conservation groups are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its assessment of the Flathead National Forest’s road-building policy in grizzly bear and bull trout habitat.

A U.S. District Court judge put a hold on the project Wednesday on the basis that the Forest Service did not properly evaluate the project’s impact on the small threatened grizzly bear population in the bordering Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem.

Poor housing conditions create additional challenges for an already difficult job – wildland firefighting. Firefighters and their families are trying to resolve these issues through legislation.

The nearly 5,000-acre Knotty Pine project would include roughly 3,000 acres of commercial logging as well 40 miles of road maintenance and road building. WildEarth Guardians in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Missoula argue that work will harm the local grizzly bear population.

Under what’s known as Good Neighbor Authority, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation can carry out logging, thinning and other projects on U.S. Forest Service Land.