HELENA - An environmental review of a proposed timber harvest in the Kootenai National Forest did not adequately address potential effects on wildlife, including federally protected grizzly bears, a forest supervisor has ruled.

In a letter Thursday to the environmental groups that had appealed the project, Bob Castaneda, Kootenai National Forest supervisor, said he had overruled the district ranger who approved the timber harvest.

The environmental assessment conducted on the proposal included an "inadequate" discussion of its potential effects on wildlife, Castaneda wrote.

 
In June, Cabinet District Ranger Julie Molzahn ruled that the project, known as the Green Mountain fuels reduction project, would have no significant effects on wildlife. Her decision authorized logging nearly 2 million board feet of timber from about 350 acres, construction of a series of temporary roads and prescribed burning on another 700 acres of forest.

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, The Ecology Center and the Lands Council appealed the decision, arguing that the environmental assessment did not adequately address effects of the project on wildlife.

The groups said it marks the second time since 2004 that the Green Mountain project has been successfully appealed.

"The Kootenai National Forest did not tell the public how this timber sale would affect old growth forest and old growth dependent species such as the northern goshawk, lynx and grizzly bears," The Ecology Center's Jeff Juel said in a statement.

John Gubel, environmental coordinator for the Kootenai forest, said Thursday that forest officials would provide the additional documentation to address concerns that were noted.

"We feel that we had a good analysis, but we are going to have to provide better documentation in the environmental assessment," he said. "We still feel it's a good project and it's going to have some real benefits in reducing fuels."