FOLLOW US

"Since the Forest Service did not appeal all of the claims it lost, or appeal the remedy issued (vacatur), the Black Ram Project decision will remain vacated, and the plaintiffs will remain prevailing parties regardless of the outcome of this appeal," the brief said.

The U.S. government asked the Ninth Circuit on March 22 to overturn the Montana federal judge's decision halting the large logging operation in the Kootenai National Forest over concerns about the project's effect on grizzly bears and old-growth trees.

Judge Molloy's August 17 ruling vacated federal analyses of the Black Ram Project's impact on the environment and endangered species and the service's finding that the logging would have no significant environmental impact.

Overriding pleas from the Forest Service and appellant Kootenai Tribe of Idaho not to stop the logging operation, the judge said their legal errors were serious while the disruptive consequences of vacatur were relatively minor.

On Friday, the Forest Service told the Ninth Circuit that Judge Molloy's ruling must be overturned because he failed to properly defer to the federal government's judgment on scientific and factual matters.

The district court judge sided with the environmental groups, finding that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not use the best available science for grizzly population size estimates in its biological opinion and that the Forest Service acted arbitrarily in relying on the analysis.

"Fish and Wildlife relied on a comprehensive study of grizzly population size and a well-accepted statistical method for projecting that population size forward. It also explained why the data plaintiffs and the district court relied on was 'an over-simplification of population biology,'" the federal government said in its opening brief.

The Center for Biological Diversity and other green groups also won on their claims in district court that the road density in the project area violated the National Forest Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, but the government argued that the judge got those issues wrong, too.

"The Forest Service complied with NFMA's requirement that the project be consistent with its Forest Plan," the March 22 brief said. "The Forest Service explained at length how the project met, or improved upon, existing metrics relating to road density designed to ensure sufficient core habitat for grizzly bears."

A Forest Service representative declined to comment Monday, saying it is the agency's practice not to comment on pending litigation. Counsel for the tribe did not respond immediately to a request for comment.