Court Fight Asks How Much Space Does a Grizzly Bear Need

A federal judge has frozen a major logging plan in southwestern Montana over concerns about space for grizzly bears. Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto on Monday blocked the 16,000-acre Greenhorn Vegetation Project in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, finding conservation groups are likely to prove the US Forest Service violated the Endangered Species Act in relying on flawed science to assess impacts to threatened grizzly bears, per Courthouse News. Four nonprofits have sued over the move to treat a 10-acre "secure habitat" patch as sufficient for grizzlies—an approach another Montana court has already questioned.

A US district judge blocked a different logging project in Montana last year, finding no justification for the 10-acre metric, taken from a Fish and Wildlife Service opinion on Yellowstone grizzlies. DeSoto wrote that officials still haven't explained why 10 acres is the right yardstick. Her ruling, a preliminary injunction, pauses logging, road work, and prescribed burns while the case proceeds. Nonprofits have also raised concerns about Canada lynx habitat. They note that a "secure habitat" for grizzlies—meaning the area a female bear needs to forage for a day or two without nearing roads—was previously defined at 2,500 acres, per E&E News. In some areas, they argue, the federal government now claims just one acre is sufficient.