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Lawsuit Filed Over Timber Project Near Helena

Project includes logging and prescribed burning about 15 miles southwest of Helena

By Dillon Tabish

HELENA — Conservation groups have filed a lawsuit challenging U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans for logging and burning in the Helena National Forest.

Three Forks-based Native Ecosystems Council and Helena-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Missoula this week.

The Independent Record reports that the groups contend the project underwent inadequate analysis and violates federal environmental laws and rules.

The 5,700-acre project includes logging and prescribed burning about 15 miles southwest of Helena and 5 miles south of Elliston.

First proposed in 2009, the project seeks greater resiliency to fire, insects and drought through diversifying age classes of trees. It also would reduce fuels adjacent to private lands and provide an estimated 25 million board feet of commercial timber.