ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) – Four agencies have joined Rockford’s airport authority in asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit that seeks to protect a 25-acre prairie remnant from an airport expansion project. The U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of the Interior, Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a court filing last week that the Natural Land Institute has no legal standing or jurisdiction to protect the Bell Bowl Prairie. The Rockford Register Star reports that institute’s lawsuit claims the federal agencies violated state and federal conservation acts when they approved a $50 million expansion project at the Chicago Rockford International Airport.
