The Forest Service summaries are here: NFS Litigation Weekly November 12 2021 EMAIL
COURT DECISION
Cascadia Wildlands v. Warnack and Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics v. Warnack (D. Oregon) — On November 5, the district court granted the plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction regarding the Willamette 2020 Fires Roadside Danger Tree Reduction Project on the Willamette National Forest because the court was bound by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals EPIC decision not allowing the use of Road Maintenance CE 4 for hazard tree removal greater than a tree length away from the roadway and for projects of large scale and scope, concluding, “The commercial logging allowed here does not remotely resemble grading or repaving roads, cleaning culverts, or removing brush (without the use of herbicides) near roads.”
NEW CASE
Wildlands Defense v. Brummett (D. Idaho) — On November 2, the plaintiffs filed a complaint against the Forest Service for violating NEPA when authorizing the Sage Hen Integrated Restoration Project on the Boise National Forest. The “project” is an “extensive 20 year project involving dozens of separate not-yet planned actions on tens of thousands of acres,” and no EIS was prepared. It implicates prior cases involving condition-based management, as we discussed most recently here.
BONUS
Federal prosecutors obtained a $15,000 fine against a rancher who pleaded guilty to three federal misdemeanors for grazing illegally rebranded cattle from California on the Bridger-Teton National Forest that did not belong to the permit holder.