US Forest Service illegally removed protections in PNW forests

 

The U.S. Forest Service illegally repealed protections for old growth trees in six national forests in central and Eastern Oregon and southeastern Washington by skirting the process for environmental review and public objection, a federal judge ruled Aug. 31.

U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary James Hubbard, a Trump administration appointee, unilaterally reversed a decades-old rule prohibiting logging trees 21 inches or more in diameter in the final days of the Trump administration. A coalition of conservation groups, including Oregon Wild and Central Oregon Landwatch, sued the Forest Service in response to the decision, which was made without environmental review or public input. U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Hallman ruled in favor of the plaintiffs Aug. 31.

The 21-inch rule, implemented in 1995, was designed to maintain wildlife habitat in six national forests — the Deschutes, Fremont-Winema, Malheur, Ochoco, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests — amounting to 7 million acres of public land.

Hallman ruled any attempt to reverse the 21-inch rule necessitated a full environmental impact statement, or EIS.

“The highly uncertain effects of this project, when considered in light of its massive scope and setting, raise substantial questions about whether this project will have a significant effect,” Hallman wrote in his decision.

When a project may have a “significant effect,” the U.S. Forest Service is required to submit an EIS, which assesses its effect on endangered species. The process also allows communities and conservation groups to propose changes to the plan and to prevent its implementation...more