Andrea Zaccardi, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Law360 on Monday that the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service are wrong to rely on outdated data to support their assumption that the population of grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem in northwest Montana is growing.
“If you look at recent data from the past several years, it shows that mortalities are on the rise and grizzly bear detection has been decreasing,” Zaccardi said. “The agencies ignored that data or disregarded it to present an optimistic picture of the grizzly bear population that is already small and struggling and not meeting recovery goals. The Fish and Wildlife Service found that the project would not jeopardize grizzly bears, but it admitted that the project will harm reproductive success for at least three female bears who are using the area.”
Meanwhile, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council argued in their Friday brief that the Ninth Circuit should either dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction or affirm U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy’s August decision that vacated the Forest Service’s approval of the Black Ram Project and the Fish and Wildlife Service’s finding that the logging would have no significant environmental impact.
