Update to Bear-iered or Not? District Court decision in Alliance for the Wild Rockies v. Bradford, involving grizzlies, roads, and other issues on the Kootenai National Forest, handed down Aug. 28, throws out Alliance’s appeal, so the project may now move forward.
Actually this did not involve an appeal. The original decision was enjoined and remanded to the Forest Service. The Forest Service “addressed the violations identified in the Court’s previous order
by a Clarification/Amendment of the Record of Decision,” so the court lifted the injunction. So there still could be an appeal based on the original issues in the lawsuit.
This also raises a question that I have always been curious about – how much can the Forest Service change a decision before it has to reissue the decision for another appeal opportunity? In this case, maybe nobody (but the FS) will be ‘harmed’ by use of a permanent closure instead of a gate, but it’s still a different decision.