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Forest Service weed-control plan challengedHELENA, Mont. (AP)--An environmental group is challenging a Kootenai National Forest weed-control plan that includes spraying herbicide from helicopters. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed a lawsuit Dec. 1 in federal court seeking an order to block the plan the Forest Service authorized last year. The suit argues that aerial spraying would be potentially harmful to people in the Libby area and to grizzly bears. The lawsuit by the Helena-based nonprofit names the Forest Service and Regional Forester Tom Tidwell. The Kootenai National Forest Invasive Plant Project authorizes multiple methods of fighting noxious weeds on 94,000 acres of the northwestern Montana forest, over a span of 15 years. Those methods include ground spraying on about half the land and aerial spraying on about one-third of it. Also in the plan are hand pulling of weeds and use of biological control, such as weed-eating insects. "We think the decision using an integrated strategy is a sound one" that gives the Forest Service the tools necessary to address the weed problem, Steve Kratville, a spokesman at the agency's regional office in Missoula, said Dec. 2. Kratville said some aspects of the weed plan have been implemented, but there has been no aerial spraying because officials have not yet found it necessary. The lawsuit says aerial spraying stands to displace grizzly bears and kill their forage. An environmental impact statement did not examine chemical weed treatment's potential effects on bear reproduction, nor did the statement disclose effects on humans when spray drifts away from its target, says the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula. The suit says that road construction and maintenance, logging and cattle grazing create and exacerbate noxious-weed infestations, yet the Forest Service did not look at ways those activities could be managed for control of weed problems. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies said it filed the lawsuit after an appeal submitted to the Forest Service was denied. 12/15/08 Date: 12/10/08
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