“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.
