Following its earlier denial of a TRO, the district court also denied a preliminary injunction for the North and South Pioneer salvage logging projects on the Boise National Forest. (D. Idaho) (See below also.)
(Notice of intent to sue under ESA.) Plaintiffs claim failure by the Forest Service to include wolverines in their biological assessment, as required by ESA if they are present in the project area, for the North Hebgen Project on the Gallatin National Forest.
Blogger’s note:
The Boise case included a “Cottonwood” style claim that the project could not proceed until completion of the forest plan level consultation that is presently occurring on bull trout critical habitat. The court held that that was not necessary in this case because project level consultation had concluded that the projects were not likely to adversely affect bull trout critical habitat, and the Fish and Wildlife Service did not base its conclusion on the forest plan. Therefore these projects could not violate ESA §7(d)’s prohibition against going ahead with actions that had the potential to adversely modify critical habitat.
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