Judge orders federal logging project halted in Shawnee National Forest

A federal judge ordered the U.S. Forest Service to halt a commercial logging project in southern Illinois' Shawnee National Forest, ruling that the project's approval under President Joe Biden in October 2024 violated the Endangered Species Act. The judge found that the Forest Service improperly approved the project without obtaining a final "biological opinion" from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which identified the project area as home to the federally protected Indiana bat.

Environmental groups sued, arguing that the Forest Service had falsely suggested no endangered bats were present in the project area and had ignored its own assessment of the area. The Forest Service contended that it had not violated the Endangered Species Act since it would not begin implementing the project until early 2025, but the judge rejected this argument, stating that an agency cannot evade federal court jurisdiction by promising not to change its mind.

The judge also noted that the contractor had already thinned out 40 of the 67 acres of the project area before the logging was halted, and the lack of urgency in completing the project further undermined the Forest Service's arguments against vacating the project approval.