Forest Service approved project six weeks before required biological opinion
Judge Nancy Rosenstengel found the Forest Service approved the roughly 70-acre project without waiting for a final biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on whether the area hosted protected Indiana bats. The decision, issued Monday, turns on the procedural sequence the agency followed before greenlighting the operation.
The Forest Service approved the project in October 2024, during the Biden administration, six weeks before the Fish and Wildlife Service completed its formal biological opinion on the project’s impact on the Indiana bat. That opinion identified the roughly 70-acre project area as home to the federally protected species.
Environmental groups sued the Forest Service last summer, alleging the agency’s own August 2024 assessment of the area disclosed that Indiana bats had been detected in the project area. The assessment, an internal, nonpublic document, concluded that even with all legally required mitigation measures, the logging project would be “likely to adversely affect” the endangered bats.
Rosenstengel ruled that the Forest Service’s failure to wait for a final biological opinion before approving the project rendered the approval improper under the Endangered Species Act. The court’s order directs the agency to suspend the commercial logging operation in the affected area.