OPINION/COMMENTARY

NINTH CIRCUIT REJECTS ENVIROS APPEAL OF FOREST HEALTH CASE

An attempt by an environmental group to prevent the U.S. Forest Service from harvesting timber in an area burned by the devastating forest fires that swept through Arizona in 2002 was rejected today by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Forest Conservation Council had asked the appellate court to reverse a July 2003 ruling by an Arizona federal district court holding that the U.S. Forest Service had complied with federal environmental study rules as to two of the salvage sale categories and that, as to a third category, the Forest Service could perform required additional environmental studies as it conducted the harvest activity. A nonprofit, public interest law firm joined the Forest Service in asking the Ninth Circuit to uphold the lower court.

“We are delighted that the demand by environmental groups for more ‘paralysis by analysis’ was rejected in light of the unprecedented drought conditions in almost every western county,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation, which filed the friend of the court brief in support of the Forest Service. “The Ninth Circuit was wise to uphold the ruling of the district court to ensure that the Forest Service has the flexibility to act in an expeditious manner to preserve forest health. Because the area that was so badly burned over in 2002 is still at risk for fire, it is absolutely critical that the Forest Service move as quickly as it did in this case.”....