Liberty Belle
Well-known member
How many of you live near Forest Service land? We do, and these rulings by federal courts at the instigation of the Center for Biological Diversity puts private property, lives and jobs in jeopardy. What they are doing is criminal. Isn't it too bad they are allowed to use our legal system to damage our forests?
Rulings may affect local forest
By Bill Harlan, Journal Staff Writer
Recent federal court rulings in Montana, Colorado and California could have major impacts on management of Black Hills National Forest, though Forest Service officials say it's too soon to predict the nature of those impacts.
"It doesn't pay to speculate," Black Hills National Forest spokesman Frank Carroll said Wednesday.
Dan Jiron, a spokesman for Forest Service headquarters in Washington, said the agency is working on a response to the decisions.
Two of the rulings seem to gut the Bush administration's so-called Healthy Forests Initiative regulations. The rules were put into effect in 2003 to speed logging and thinning in forests that, according to the Forest Service, were overgrown and at risk for wildfire.
Dense forests in the so-called "wildland-urban interface" in the Black Hills are especially vulnerable, Forest Service officials here say.
A spokesman for Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said the Bush administration regulations were so important that Thune might introduce legislation to replace them. "It is vital that the Healthy Forests provisions are implemented, and if that requires further congressional action, Sen. Thune is ready to do just that," Kyle Downey said in an e-mail.
The two Democrats in the state's congressional delegation, Sen. Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth were more circumspect about the need for new legislation.
Johnson said that the regulations of the Healthy Forests Initiative were different than laws of the Healthy Forest Act, which remains in effect. "The recent litigation affects a different set of authorities, and I do believe that the Forest Service appeals process could be improved," Johnson said in an e-mailed response to a question.
Herseth said in an e-mail that "some recent court decisions may hinder our ability to provide sensible management within our national forests through categorical exclusions."
Herseth and Johnson stopped short of proposing new legislation.
The Forest Service uses "categorical exclusions" to speed approval of relatively small projects that are considered emergencies. The Bush administration further streamlined that rule in 2003 by eliminating an appeal process, but a federal judge in California struck down the new regulation last fall.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, Mont., affirmed the California ruling and also struck down another regulation limiting administrative appeals. That rule restricted appeals to people who had previously submitted comments on the projects. Molloy ruled that the Bush administration provision was too restrictive.
Jeremy Nichols of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance welcomed the ruling. "It restores checks and balances," he said. Biodiversity is based in Laramie, Wyo., but the group frequently challenges Forest Service projects in the Black Hills.
A Black Hills timber industry spokesman had a different view. "It's plain silliness," said Aaron Everett of the Black Hills Resources Association. "This decision means someone who never bothered to participate can ambush the Forest Service with an appeal on issues the agency has not first had an opportunity to address in their analysis," he said.
But Everett added that the Montana ruling might not have much effect in the Black Hills because environmental groups here — including Biodiversity — do submit lengthy comments on projects.
Only one project in the Black Hills has been approved under the 2003 regulations. The Bugtown Gulch Project is on 16,000 acres of national forest five miles west of Custer.
Carroll said the Forest Service and commercial loggers had removed "about 40 percent of the volume of the Bugtown project and 70 percent of the urgent-removal trees, meaning those with active insects." That project will not stop, but Carroll emphasized that the Forest Service had not determined how the Montana ruling would affect upcoming projects.
The third federal court ruling important to the Black Hills came earlier this month, when Biodiversity won its court battle to stop the so-called Cement Project. The project would have included commercial logging and noncommercial thinning on 20,000 acres in the Wyoming Black Hills, southeast of Sundance, Wyo.
Biodiversity sued to stop the Cement Project, saying the environmental analysis was inadequate. The Forest Service then withdrew the project and asked U.S. District Judge John Kane of Denver to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the issue was moot.
Kane agreed to dismiss the suit "conditioned upon the government's representation that the Cement Project has been permanently withdrawn and will never be revived."
In other words, the project is dead.
"This ruling is a great victory for the health and sustainability of the Black Hills National Forest and in particular the Greater Sand Creek area," Nichols said.
Everett argued the Cement Project would have allowed loggers to thin dense forest at risk for insect infestations and catastrophic wildfires. "If there's something to be learned from the Cement ordeal, it's how legal paperwork can be used to fan the flames of a severe wildfire," he said.
Last year, a wildfire burned through part of the project area.
Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or [email protected].
April 28, 2006
http://rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/04/28/news/top/news02.txt
Rulings may affect local forest
By Bill Harlan, Journal Staff Writer
Recent federal court rulings in Montana, Colorado and California could have major impacts on management of Black Hills National Forest, though Forest Service officials say it's too soon to predict the nature of those impacts.
"It doesn't pay to speculate," Black Hills National Forest spokesman Frank Carroll said Wednesday.
Dan Jiron, a spokesman for Forest Service headquarters in Washington, said the agency is working on a response to the decisions.
Two of the rulings seem to gut the Bush administration's so-called Healthy Forests Initiative regulations. The rules were put into effect in 2003 to speed logging and thinning in forests that, according to the Forest Service, were overgrown and at risk for wildfire.
Dense forests in the so-called "wildland-urban interface" in the Black Hills are especially vulnerable, Forest Service officials here say.
A spokesman for Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said the Bush administration regulations were so important that Thune might introduce legislation to replace them. "It is vital that the Healthy Forests provisions are implemented, and if that requires further congressional action, Sen. Thune is ready to do just that," Kyle Downey said in an e-mail.
The two Democrats in the state's congressional delegation, Sen. Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth were more circumspect about the need for new legislation.
Johnson said that the regulations of the Healthy Forests Initiative were different than laws of the Healthy Forest Act, which remains in effect. "The recent litigation affects a different set of authorities, and I do believe that the Forest Service appeals process could be improved," Johnson said in an e-mailed response to a question.
Herseth said in an e-mail that "some recent court decisions may hinder our ability to provide sensible management within our national forests through categorical exclusions."
Herseth and Johnson stopped short of proposing new legislation.
The Forest Service uses "categorical exclusions" to speed approval of relatively small projects that are considered emergencies. The Bush administration further streamlined that rule in 2003 by eliminating an appeal process, but a federal judge in California struck down the new regulation last fall.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, Mont., affirmed the California ruling and also struck down another regulation limiting administrative appeals. That rule restricted appeals to people who had previously submitted comments on the projects. Molloy ruled that the Bush administration provision was too restrictive.
Jeremy Nichols of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance welcomed the ruling. "It restores checks and balances," he said. Biodiversity is based in Laramie, Wyo., but the group frequently challenges Forest Service projects in the Black Hills.
A Black Hills timber industry spokesman had a different view. "It's plain silliness," said Aaron Everett of the Black Hills Resources Association. "This decision means someone who never bothered to participate can ambush the Forest Service with an appeal on issues the agency has not first had an opportunity to address in their analysis," he said.
But Everett added that the Montana ruling might not have much effect in the Black Hills because environmental groups here — including Biodiversity — do submit lengthy comments on projects.
Only one project in the Black Hills has been approved under the 2003 regulations. The Bugtown Gulch Project is on 16,000 acres of national forest five miles west of Custer.
Carroll said the Forest Service and commercial loggers had removed "about 40 percent of the volume of the Bugtown project and 70 percent of the urgent-removal trees, meaning those with active insects." That project will not stop, but Carroll emphasized that the Forest Service had not determined how the Montana ruling would affect upcoming projects.
The third federal court ruling important to the Black Hills came earlier this month, when Biodiversity won its court battle to stop the so-called Cement Project. The project would have included commercial logging and noncommercial thinning on 20,000 acres in the Wyoming Black Hills, southeast of Sundance, Wyo.
Biodiversity sued to stop the Cement Project, saying the environmental analysis was inadequate. The Forest Service then withdrew the project and asked U.S. District Judge John Kane of Denver to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the issue was moot.
Kane agreed to dismiss the suit "conditioned upon the government's representation that the Cement Project has been permanently withdrawn and will never be revived."
In other words, the project is dead.
"This ruling is a great victory for the health and sustainability of the Black Hills National Forest and in particular the Greater Sand Creek area," Nichols said.
Everett argued the Cement Project would have allowed loggers to thin dense forest at risk for insect infestations and catastrophic wildfires. "If there's something to be learned from the Cement ordeal, it's how legal paperwork can be used to fan the flames of a severe wildfire," he said.
Last year, a wildfire burned through part of the project area.
Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or [email protected].
April 28, 2006
http://rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/04/28/news/top/news02.txt
