Pointing to evidence that an isolated population of grizzly bears in northwest Montana has failed to meet its recovery goals, a conservation group is suing the Kootenai National Forest over its 95,000-acre Black Ram logging project in the Yaak Valley north of Troy. The logging project has been beset by controversy since it was first proposed in July 2018, with high-profile conservation figures… arguing … it lacks effective safeguards to protect the region’s fragile grizzly population in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem, which includes a federally designated grizzly bear recovery zone. …On Jan. 6, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council formally challenged the project, filing their lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in federal court in Missoula. The lawsuit also names as defendants Keith Lannom, deputy regional forester for the USFS’ northern region; Chad Benson, the forest supervisor for the Kootenai National Forest; and Kirsten Kaiser, district ranger for the Kootenai National Forest.