Judge Hears Arguments Over Bighorn Forest Plan

Managers of Bighorn National Forest should have considered the potential environmental damage of livestock grazing more when they revised the forest's management plan, an attorney for an environmental group argued before a federal judge Tuesday. A U.S. Forest Service attorney countered that such a forest-wide look at grazing was neither required nor necessary. The revised management plan for the Bighorn National Forest in Northern Wyoming went into effect in 2005. Western Watersheds Project, based in Boise, Idaho, filed suit over the revision process in 2007. U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer took Tuesday's arguments under advisement and told both sides not to expect a ruling for at least a month. "I don't really have an indication where I'm going to go in this case," Brimmer said. The lawsuit claims laws including the National Environmental Policy Act required forest managers to a closer look at grazing in revising the plan. "The Forest Service didn't actually tell us what the impacts of grazing on the forest are," Western Watersheds Project attorney Natalie Havlina told Brimmer. "Livestock grazing isn't something that can just be left in the background in this part of the country when the Forest Service is considering how it's going to manager 1.1 million acres for the next 15 years," Havlina said, referring to the size of Bighorn National Forest. Other forests in the region have considered less grazing in revising their forest plans, she said...AP