A federal judge has ordered an injunction stalling the Knotty Pine timber project on 56,000 acres of Kootenai National Forest land until federal agencies address whether the construction of logging roads, as well as their illegal use, will harm isolated grizzly bear populations in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem. The April 24 order by U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen was issued in response to a lawsuit filed last year by conservation groups. The complaint accuses the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of failing to analyze the damage that logging and road use would have on grizzly bears living in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem Recovery Zone, a designation that is much smaller than the Northern Continental Divide or the Greater Yellowstone ecosystems. In his order, Christensen said the agencies failed to adequately account for the harm to grizzly bears from illegal roads when they authorized the Knotty Pine Project.