KALISPELL (AP) -- A federal judge has rejected claims that management plans for the Kootenai and Idaho Panhandle national forests fall short in protecting grizzly bears from the effects of motorized access to the forests.

It was clear from the outset that the plans were not intended to provide comprehensive protection for grizzlies, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula said last week.

He rejected all eight major claims in a lawsuit filed by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Lands Council.

The groups challenged forest-plan amendments, adopted in 2004, as inadequate for protection of bears in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk bear recovery areas. The Kootenai forest includes the Cabinet-Yaak area and the Idaho Panhandle forest the Selkirk area.

Molly's ruling will be appealed, said Michael Garrity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies executive director.

''If this decision isn't reversed, the grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak are doomed to extinction,'' Garrity said. ''That's the bottom line, and that's why we have to appeal.''

Molloy wrote that the environmental impact statement provided in support of the amendments ''explains that grizzly bears are in trouble and it explains that the plan amendments will slightly improve their habitat conditions. The EIS does not state that all problems for the bears will be solved by these amendments.''

The Forest Service has maintained the amendments will improve bear habitat by reducing road densities. The alliance and the Lands Council said the amendments ''only barely improve the status quo.''

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates there are 30 to 40 grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak area.