A federal court judge in Montana has halted a logging project near White Sulphur Springs in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest after he said the U.S. Forest Service failed to take into account a decline in nesting goshawks, which violated federal law. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council successfully argued before federal magistrate Kathleen L. DeSoto that both the U.S. Forest Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service hadn’t properly considered the species, which are considered an essential indicator of old-growth forests. …DeSoto found that the Forest Service’s lack of monitoring the goshawk population violated the National Forest Management Act as well as the National Environmental Protection Act. …DeSoto found officials had data showing the population was declining and that the project would likely harm the species. It had failed to include that information in its assessment.