Forest plan spurs two lawsuits
Sonora Union Democrat
Published Wednesday, February 2, 2005
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer yesterday sued the U.S. Forest Service over its plan to manage logging and other activities on 11.5 million acres of Sierra Nevada forest land, saying the agency is putting forests at risk in favor of timber harvesting.
The revised Sierra Nevada Framework quadruples the amount of logging allowed in the forests and decreases fire safety projects around communities, Lockyer said during a telephone conference yesterday.
The suit, and a similar lawsuit filed this week by conservation groups, argues there is no scientific justification for the Forest Service plan, which supplants the original Framework approved at the end of President Bill Clinton's administration.
A particularly contentious part of the revised plan would allow logging of trees up to 30 inches in diameter throughout national forests. The original Framework allowed the cutting of such trees only in areas next to communities in need of fire protection.
"This isn't just a bunch of disgruntled tree-huggers," said Warren Alford of Avery, a member of the Sierra Forest Legacy, one of the conservation groups that sued over the revised plan. "You have the Attorney General and credible scientists."
The revised plan throws away 10 years of research it took to complete the 2001 Framework, Lockyer said.
"The Bush administration just tossed this plan," he said.
Dr. Norm Christensen, Duke University professor of ecology, said the Forest Service need not cut large older trees, which are not usually considered fire hazards.
It should focus instead on thinning smaller flammable vegetation, he said during yesterday's teleconference.
"If the objective is to do away with fuel, there will rarely be a need to take trees of that size," said Dr. Jerry Franklin, University of Washington professor of Ecosystem Analysis. "Cutting trees 30 inches is arbitrary and excessive. The limit should be lower."
Ginger Armstrong, a consultant for the Tuolumne County Alliance for Resources and Environment, disagrees.
"The Framework is allowing the cutting of trees that are a few more inches in diameter than the past," she said. "I think expanding harvest areas protects communities more."
TuCARE is a Twain Harte-based group made up primarily of ranchers and loggers. It promotes "the wise use of forest resources."
Selling larger trees will generate additional funding for fire prevention programs, Armstrong said.
"They can pay for removing chips, shredding, whatever prescription needs to be done," she said.
Environmentalists complain that the Framework revision puts logging demands ahead of of the decade of scientific research put into the original plan.
"We believe that the (Forest Service) was motivated by political interests, not available science," said John Buckley, executive director of the Twain Harte based Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center.
Not so, said Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes.
"We have scientists on our side, too,'' he said. "There is no black-and-white science in the Sierra Nevada."
The revised plan calls for monitoring projects and making changes if necessary, he said.
Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey had until last Friday to review the plan, but his office said any announcement of changes or revisions is still pending.
Rey is named in the lawsuits along with the Forest Service and its chief and the regional forester.
"Because he missed his deadline, in effect the administrative review process is complete'' and opponents are free to sue, Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar said.
Both suits were filed in Sacramento federal court. Neither asks a judge to immediately prevent the Forest Service from acting under the revised Sierra plan.