A federal judge told the U.S. Forest Service that a plan to kill rainbow trout and replace them with native Yellowstone cutthroat trout along a 45-mile stretch of waterways in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness violates federal law.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy granted summary judgment in favor of the conservation group Wilderness Watch, which sued the Forest Service in 2023, alleging the agency’s plan violated several provisions of the Wilderness Act.

“The Wilderness Act is not simply a procedural hurdle that can be overcome by considering all the relevant factors that bear on wilderness character,” Molloy wrote in a decision last week. “To the contrary, the Act dictates the outcome; wilderness areas ‘shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American

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