On February 7, 2024, the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club (Sierra Club) and the Texas Conservation Alliance (TCA) met with the U.S. Forest Service (FS) about the proposed Geneva Thinning Project (GTP, 7,014 acres) in Sabine National Forest (SNF).

The objective of the meeting was for the Sierra Club and TCA to get the FS to reduce the environmental impacts of the proposed project (make it greener).  The District Ranger of Angelina/Sabine National Forests and members of his staff attended the meeting.

The FS stated that it had revised the list of stands (areas of trees with similar features) to be thinned (logged) and dropped many stands from the proposal. 

TCA and or the Sierra Club stated that better maps are needed which show topography, roads, and streams.  Both groups stated that the GTP scoping letter wasn’t vetted since the project was for thinning of 20-50-year-old tree plantations and not older trees.  TCA stated that the FS had been unresponsive about substantive comments like the presence of hydric (wet) soils documented by a natural resources assessment.  Stands in the GTP must be removed where there is no road access to reduce forest and soil damage.

TCA and or the Sierra Club stated that old tree stands shouldn’t be thinned.  These tree stands are 60-145 years old, and many are old growth stands that are 100 years or older.

The FS stated that it had no intention of thinning older trees.  The Sierra Club pressed the FS to put language in the project decision document that said that older trees won’t be thinned.

TCA and or the Sierra Club stated that stands should be dropped from the GTP because they had old trees, some stands were on unsuitable soils (like hydric/floodplain soils), and stands had access issues for roads/skidder trails. Thinning stands required crossing streams. Some stands are on 5-30% slopes which creates an erosion hazard, steep slopes should have a no-cut buffer of 150 feet to protect from erosion, and ravines where rare/sensitive spring ephemeral plants grow need no-cut buffers to keep them from drying out due to sunlight caused by thinning at the ravine edge.

This meeting resulted in the deletion of many stands slated for logging from the GTP due to natural resource constraints that the Sierra Club and TCA pointed out.  The Sierra Club will continue to conduct oversight on proposed FS projects to ensure that their environmental impacts are reduced as much as possible.