Massive California timber sale stopped in steelhead trout watersheds

On 4/17/02, the Federal District Court of California again halted a post-fire salvage logging project on the Six Rivers National Forest on the western border of the Trinity Alps Wilderness in northwestern California in response to litigation by the Environmental Protection Information Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, California Wilderness Coalition, Klamath Forest Alliance, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and the Forest Conservation Council.  The injunction stops any logging from proceeding until the Forest Service prepares a supplemental environmental impact statement to correct the deficiencies.

The project would have logged more than 20 million board feet on 1,050 acres in watersheds that provide vital habitat for steelhead trout and salmon, undermining the tens of millions of dollars in habitat restoration work done in the affected watersheds over the past 20 years.The “Big Bar” project also included 300 acres of proposed logging in an inventoried roadless area, the first proposed in California since the Clinton Administration released its roadless area conservation plan in January 2001. Logging in roadless areas is inimical to the restoration of trout habitats, as documented in the ground-breaking report by the Western Native Trout Campaign of the Center for Biological Diversity:
Imperiled Western Trout and the Importance of Roadless Areas.

The court found that the environmental analysis prepared for the “Big Bar” sale violated the National Environmental Policy and National Forest Management Acts by ignoring scientific evidence indicating that logging in burned areas damages soil, harms fish habitat, and thwarts post-fire recovery.  The court also concluded that the Forest Service failed to address cumulative impacts to a variety of wildlife species, failed to consider the environmental impacts of past fire-fighting actions, and failed to show that the project would meet forest plan soil standards.

"The Forest Service had already been warned by the courts to address the science that advises not to log after wildfires," said Marc Fink, attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center representing the plaintiff groups. The entire court decision is available at: www.westernlaw.org.

This marks the third time the logging project has been stopped by litigation on behalf of the seven environmental groups. Initially, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth issued an "emergency situation determination " that attempted to exempt the project from public appeals.  In July 2001, this approach was ruled illegal by the court after the groups filed suit.Bosworth subsequently withdrew the emergency finding. The current court ruling extends the injunction until the Forest Service prepares a new analysis that complies with the law.

The timber sale would also harm Northern goshawks and Pacific fishers.