by Todd Dvorak, Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — A pair of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the merits of a proposed 7,000-acre logging project in federal forest on the western border of Yellowstone National Park.
Attorneys for the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council claim the data used by federal agencies to analyze and authorize the Split Creek timber harvest is flawed.
The complaint also accuses the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of failing to determine the impact logging would have on habitat potentially critical to the Canada lynx.
Officials with the Caribou-Targhee National Forest gave their latest approval of the project in December 2009 and it survived an administrative appeal.
