HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- A federal judge has rejected a U.S. Forest Service request to lift an injunction so it can resume a logging project in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year blocked the Rat Creek Salvage Project, which aims to log trees on more than 1,650 acres of burned forest.

The Alliance for Wild Rockies, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, says the Forest Service mischaracterized the project.

The Forest Service asked U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy to lift the injunction because the plaintiffs have gone through the agency's administrative appeals process.

Molloy denied the request on Wednesday, saying that process had already been completed before the appellate court blocked the project. He ruled that there have been no changes to warrant lifting the injunction.

Copyright 2011 The AP.