Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to stop a forest project in western Idaho that they say will harm habitat needed by federally protected bull trout.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Idaho Sporting Congress and Native Ecosystems Council filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boise against the U.S. Forest Service.
The groups say the agency violated environmental laws by approving the Lost Creek-Boulder Creek Landscape Restoration Project in September without proper environmental analysis.
The Forest Service says the project in Adams County on about 80,000 acres in the Payette National Forest includes timber harvest, non-commercial thinning, prescribed burning and fish passage projects on streams.
Payette National Forest spokesman Brian Harris says the agency does not comment on pending litigation.