Grizzly timber harvest gets the go-ahead

After three years of legal wrangling, the Idaho Forest Group of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, has won the right to harvest the 9.8 million board feet of timber from the Grizzly Project in the Kootenai National Forest.

In the U.S. District Court of Missoula on Tuesday, Aug. 20, Judge Donald W. Molloy declared that all the concerns by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, the plaintiff in the suit, have been satisfied and the injunction against the the timber harvest has been lifted.

In his ruling. Molloy wrote: “The supplemental analysis complted by the Forest Service brings the proposed Grizzly Project into compliance with the National Enviromental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act. The conditions of this court’s June 2010 judgment have been satisfied. It is inequitable for the injunction to remain in place.”.

Quinn Carver, the KNF’s staff officer for Natural Resources and Planning, said the lifting of the injunction is great news not only for the Troy Ranger District, but for all of Lincoln County.

“This will bring jobs to Troy and Libby, help the mill and see increased diesel and gas sales, as well as increase sales at saw shops,” Carver said.