BOZEMAN — A group of logging opponents has offered the highest bid in the auction of a timber sale in southern Montana.
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that if the bid is accepted it will be the first time a group blocked an entire logging project by purchasing a timber conservation license in Montana.
Save Our Gallatin Front offered a total bid of roughly $400,000 for a 25-year deferral of the 443-acre (179-hectare) Limestone West Timber Sale southeast of Bozeman.
John Grassy, of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, says the group’s bid topped RY Timber, which was the only other bidder in the sale. Grassy says the company offered the minimum bid of about $376,000.
The results are not official until agency attorneys verify the bid.