KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) -- A federal judge has cleared the way for salvage logging in grizzly bear habitat in the Flathead National Forest while the bears are hibernating.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy had banned logging in the roadless areas that fall within areas burned by wildfires during the summer of 2003. The temporary restraining order was issued in response to a lawsuit that challenges post-fire management projects in the Swan Mountain Range west of Hungry Horse Reservoir and in the North Fork Flathead Basin.

The Flathead National Forest filed a motion in November asking that the logging ban be lifted during winter months, and Molloy did so in a ruling filed Friday.

Joe Krueger, the Flathead forest's environmental coordinator, said the initial order had the potential to set a precedent for banning all management activities year-round in core grizzly bear habitat.

But the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service argued that scheduled helicopter logging in those areas would not adversely affect grizzly bears when they are denned during the winter months.

"Once the bears are denned up, there are no effects," Krueger said.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, led by the Swan View Coalition, did not argue to the contrary, Krueger said, but the judge took about a month to issue the ruling, which allows logging until April 1.

The latest court order will have limited effect in some areas because trees felled earlier are buried under snow and inaccessible. But some of the timber purchasers likely will proceed with salvage activity during the next few months, Krueger said.

The ruling does not address the main issues in the lawsuit, which involve road-density in grizzly bear habitat.