Logging halted on four midwestern national forests

by Jim Bensman and Jason Tockman

Victories over massive timber sales on four national forests in the Central Hardwood region have activists celebrating and plotting long-term strategies for ending the timber sale program permanently. Through appeals and litigation, direct action, public education, and letter-writing, grassroots forest protection groups have dealt major blows to timbering on the Allegheny, Daniel Boone, Wayne and Mark Twain National Forests. To sweeten the victories, environmental groups have won back court costs and attorneys fees, totaling nearly $50,000, from the US Forest Service.

These successes set precedents, both cumulatively and on their own, for logging on national forests, including the application of laws governing salvage logging and forest planning. These stop-gap measures are providing an interim reprieve from logging until more sweeping legislative or litigative solutions come to bear.

31 Million-Board-Foot Timber Sale Prevented in Pennsylvania's Allegheny NF

On October 15, following a 16-month campaign launched by the Allegheny Defense Project and Heartwood, federal District Judge William Standish issued his decision on the case challenging the massive 31-million-board-foot Mortality II Timber Sale. The plaintiffs' bedrock claim-that the US Forest Service (USFS) must prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for such an enormous timber sale-was upheld in full by the court. In making his decision, the judge cited the fact that the Environmental Assessment was 50 pages, longer than the 15-page threshold after which an EIS is triggered, according to Council on Environmental Quality guidelines. Judge Standish enjoined the USFS from implementing the sale until an EIS is prepared and adopted.

The decision was extremely important for Pennsylvania since it was the first lawsuit ever filed against a timber sale in the state. The 5000-acre sale of black cherry trees would have sold for $12 million.

Two Salvage Sales Stopped in Missouri's Mark Twain NF

In one of the few successful attempts to stop a sale sold under the Salvage Rider, Judge Russell Clark recently issued a preliminary injunction against the Mark Twain National Forest halting the Windstorm salvage sales near the 11-Point National Scenic River and Irish Wilderness.

What makes this even more remarkable is that the suit was filed by activists, not lawyers. Heartwood's Jim Bensman, Charles Phillips, and Devin Scherubel filed a pro se lawsuit. The main issue was the federally endangered Indiana bat.

Judge Clark agreed with Heartwood on every single issue. He ruled that under the Endangered Species Act the USFS is required to place top priority on the Indiana bat, and that the USFS and USFWS were arbitrary and capricious in failing to use the best scientific information available when they concluded the sale was not likely to adversely affect the bats.

The judge also ruled that, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, the USFS failed to take a "hard look" at the impact to the bats. The USFS now must prepare an EIS and cannot use a categorical exclusion due to the presence of the Indiana bat.

Cancelled timber sale on Ohio's Wayne NF nets $11,500 for environmentalists

The USFS complied in November with a court order to pay the Buckeye Forest Council (BFC) and its attorneys over $11,500 for fees incurred during a litigative effort to prevent two timber sales. The BFC filed the lawsuit in 1996 after the USFS denied a request to correct discrepancies between the units described in the Environmental Assessment (EA) and areas to be logged. Approximately 150 acres of the Bluegrass Ridge and Markins Fork timber sales were slated to be cut although they were not given proper review in the EA. In August 1996, the Forest Service agreed not to log the contested areas.

Logging has been shut down on the Wayne National Forest since September 1997 when District Judge Graham granted the Ohio Sierra Club's request for a temporary restraining order against logging. The issue has since been taken up by the US Supreme Court, from which a ruling is expected in the summer of 1998.

Thirteen sales bagged in Kentucky's Daniel Boone NF

Down in the Bluegrass State, the USFS is having the same luck. A Kentucky Heartwood lawsuit challenging the exclusive use of even-aged forest management on the Daniel Boone National Forest and the failure of the USFS to consult with the USFWS on its forest plan is meeting with some success. This litigation sought to prevent 27 timber sales on Kentucky's only national forest.

On October 30, the USFS filed a brief in response to Kentucky Heartwood's motion for a preliminary injunction on logging on the Boone; the Forest Service decided to cancel 12 of the sales due to inadequate analysis and agreed to enter formal consultation with the USFWS on the Forest Plan. They will, however, move forward with the other 15 timber sales. Heartwood is still trying to get a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against the remaining 15 sales. No matter what happens, the 12 timber sales are stopped.

In a separate lawsuit on the Daniel Boone, Heartwood succeeded in preventing logging of the Leatherwood timber sale, a 199-acre sale next to the Red River Gorge. As with the victory on the Wayne, the timber sale netted more than a protected ecosystem: Heartwood and its attorneys were awarded over $35,000.

Efforts to prevent logging on national forests in other Midwestern states have also had success. There has been a virtual shutdown of logging on the Shawnee National Forest in Illinios thanks to the efforts of the Regional Association of Concerned Environmentalists, the Sierra Club, National Audubon Society. On Indiana's Hoosier National Forest, Heartwood blocked a hardwood salvage sale through an administrative appeal. To get involved with forest protection in the Central Hardwoods, contact Heartwood at POB 1424, Bloomington, IN 47402; (812) 337-8898.