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Court Rules That Administration Cannot Ignore Environmental Laws to Log Forests

Case Updates:

December 5, 2007

The Environmental Law Program has gained another significant national victory in taking down the Bush Administration's so-called "Healthy Forests Initiative."  On December 5, 2007 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Forest Service illegally waived environmental review for any and all alleged "fuel reduction" projects up to 1,000 acres, with no limit on the number or size of trees that could be cut, or on where or how often this exemption could be used.  The Forest Service projected more than 1,000 projects involving 1.2 million acres would be logged or burned annually under this program. This would have been especially serious in the West, and would have enabled the Forest Service to cut down forests extensively in the backcountry without analyzing alternatives and impacts on sensitive species and without considering the mitigation measures that have applied to such actions for more than 25 years.

Click here to read the full press release, including a statement by lead Sierra Club attorney Eric Huber!

Click here to read the full opinion.

Details and Documents:

News Articles:

Ruling likely to slow burning, But it won't stop fire prevention efforts, forest managers say
December 7, 2007 by Carrie Peyton Dahlberg, The Sacramento Bee