Sacramento, Calif., August 6, 2009 – The California Forestry Association (CFA) today criticized the filing of another lawsuit by activists in their ongoing program to stop fuel reduction projects on national forestlands in the Sierra Nevada. CFA noted that the endless flow of forest-management lawsuits must stop if California’s public forests are to be made safe from the threat of wildfires.

The Sierra Forest Legacy (SFL) on Monday filed with U.S. District Court Judge England a renewed motion for a permanent injunction that would set aside the 2004 Sierra Nevada Framework and its supplemental Environmental Impact Statements. Such an injunction would immediately halt dozens of planned forest thinning and fuel reduction projects aimed at protecting communities and resources throughout California’s Sierra Nevada.

“To renew efforts to block forest thinning and fuel reduction projects on hundreds of thousands of acres at high risk of catastrophic wildfire, and to do so through trumped-up court actions as a potentially devastating fire season draws nearer seems irresponsible,” says David Bischel, president of the California Forestry Association. “We know from the Moonlight Fire and dozens of other high-intensity blazes like it that stalling fuel reduction projects through litigation leads to more severe wildfire, increases in greenhouse gas emissions, more Californians suffering from respiratory ailments and greater environmental consequences to watersheds and wildlife habitat.”

Monday’s SFL action is the latest activist filing in court proceedings that have hampered forest management since the U.S. Forest Service produced its 2004 Sierra Nevada Framework. More than 15 lawsuits filed to block forest management in California have been tied up in courts for more than four years, restricting the ability of the Forest Service and private forestland owners to manage forestlands sustainably. Meanwhile, severe wildfire has increased more than 300 percent in California in each of the last two years, more than 10 million acres stand at high risk of severe wildfire and California taxpayers spend more than $1 billion annually to fight wildfires.

“Managing forests to reduce fuel loads can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from wildfire, save taxpayers millions and conserve forest resources from soils to wildlife habitat,” says Bischel. “Many Sierra Nevada forestlands now stand overgrown with up to 10 times more trees per acre than pre-Gold Rush-Era forests. With unprecedented fuel loads posing an immediate threat to more than three million California homes, we need more efforts to thin forests, not more litigation to block fuel reduction efforts.”

Litigation brought by environmental activists already blocks about one-third of planned Forest Service activities in California. In Plumas County, more than 50 appeals and lawsuits have blocked thinning projects planned in conjunction with the Herger-Feinstein Forest Restoration Act, including projects aimed at protecting spotted owl habitat. The 2007 Moonlight fire raced through areas where treatment had been blocked and destroyed more than 20 known owl nesting sites and thousands of acres of nesting and foraging habitat.

The injunction sought by SFL would affect all fuel reduction projects planned in the Sierra Nevada and could end thinning on more than 100,000 acres of national forestland annually. The requested injunction duplicates activist efforts within the court system – the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is already considering the merits of cases involving the 2004 Framework. Judge England ruled in favor of the U.S. Forest Service in those cases in September of 2008; the 9th Circuit received final briefs to reconsider its July 2008 decision in January 2009.

In addition to increasing wildfire severity, halting planned fuel-reduction projects would have a devastating effect on a forestry infrastructure already reeling from the down economy and regulatory restrictions that have reduced timber harvest from federal lands by about 90 percent over the last 20 years. Two sawmills have closed so far in 2009 and two more closures are planned. Since 2000 more than one-third of California’s sawmills have closed, eliminating thousands of family-wage jobs critical to rural California communities.

“Private forestland owners have clearly shown the climate, water quality and wildlife conservation benefits of managing forests sustainably,” says Bischel, “and there are a number of measures in place that protect the ecological values of the forest. The practice of using the courts as a tool to obstruct forest management should be put behind us so we can focus on the challenge of meeting the recreation, wood and water needs of a growing population and utilize forest management as a critical tool in addressing climate change.”

The California Forestry Association represents professionals committed to sustainable forestry and the protection of the state’s natural resources.CFA is committed to keeping the public informed on issues surrounding efforts to keep California forests healthy and well-managed for water, wildlife, wildfire protection and climate change benefit.
 

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