The Associated Press

A federal judge has halted all logging, intentional burning or related activities in areas of the Wayne National Forest that are the subject of a lawsuit by environmental groups to halt timber sales there by the federal government.

U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott issued the temporary restraining order Wednesday and set an Aug. 18 hearing to consider whether to continue the ban.

The Buckeye Forest Council and Heartwood had sued in April, saying the U.S. Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service gave approvals for the logging projects without the environmental impact assessments that federal law requires.

The lawsuit also challenged the government's overall plan for the forest.

Some of the areas in dispute still were logged this summer. The environmental groups argued that without the restraining order, the habitat for the endangered Indiana bat would be irreversibly destroyed even if they eventually prevailed in the lawsuit.

The Forest Service said Thursday that it had halted "timber sale action" but declined further comment on the pending litigation.

The government has argued in court that it followed federal laws in allowing the sales.

The disputed sales cover 1,400 acres in the Ironton section of Ohio's only national forest, which is in three separate sections in southern and southeast Ohio.