[NYTr] Forest burning rule blocked by appeals court

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by MichaelP

[Havn't yet located the court-published OPINION]


AP via Findlaw - Dec 5, 2007
http://news.lp.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/12-06-2007/7a83000f1755c77b.html

Federal appeals court blocks Bush admin. rule on logging, burning in
national forests

(AP) - SAN FRANCISCO-A federal appeals court blocked a Bush
administration rule that allowed logging and burning projects in
national forests without first analyzing their effects on the
environment.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday that the U.S.
Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it
issued the 2003 rule, which was billed as a way to reduce wildfires.

As  part  of  the  "Healthy  Forests Initiative," the "hazardous fuels 
reduction"  rule  exempted  logging  projects  up  to 1,000 acres (405 
hectares)  and  prescribed  forest  burns  up  to  4,500  acres (1,821 
hectares) from environmental review.

The  court  said  the  agency's  failure  to properly analyze the rule
caused "irreparable  injury"  by allowing more than 1.2 million acres
(490,000 hectares)  of  national  forest land to be logged and burned
each year without studying the ecological impacts.

The  three-judge  panel  ruled  that  the Forest Service can no longer
exempt such projects from environmental analysis until the rule itself
can be properly analyzed.

The  San  Francisco-based appeals court sided with the Sierra Club and
Sierra Nevada  Forest  Protection  Campaign,  which  sued  the Forest
Service and Department of Agriculture in 2004.

Wednesday's  decision  overturns a lower court ruling that favored the 
administration.

"This ruling will help ensure that vast swaths of our national forests
are not logged without environmental reviews under the guise of forest
management  or fuel suppression," said Eric Huber, an attorney for the
San Francisco-based Sierra Club.

The   U.S.  Department  of  Justice,  which  represented  the  federal 
agencies,  is reviewing the court's opinion and will decide whether to
appeal, said  David  Shelledy,  civil  division  chief  of  the  U.S.
Attorney's office in Sacramento.

Forest  Service  spokesman Joe Walsh said the agency believes the rule
is a "useful tool," but will comply with the court's injunction.

The  policy change was made following the 2000 fire season, one of the
worst in  50 years, when 123,000 fires scorched more than 8.4 million
acres  (3.4 million hectares). Officials said the exemption would make
it easier  and faster  to  clear plants, shrubs and trees that could
ignite or fuel wildfires.

But  conservationists  opposed  the  rule,  saying it allowed national
forest land  to  be  logged  and  burned  with  minimal oversight and
analysis.