A court ruling that prohibits the Forest Service from sidestepping environmental reviews for major logging projects does not apply to small- scale efforts such as Christmas-tree cutting and firewood collection, the judge who presided over the case said.
U.S. District Judge James K. Singleton Jr. on Wednesday clarified his July 2 ruling involving the controversial use of “categorical exclusions.”
He said the agency shouldn’t have put the brakes on 1,500 noncontentious activities across the U.S., including the cutting of the national Christmas tree in New Mexico and special events such as trail runs in Colorado.
“The Forest Service need not suspend actions” in those situations, Singleton wrote.
His original ruling stemmed from a 2003 lawsuit filed by five conservation groups attempting to block cutting of burned timber in California’s Sequoia National Forest under a categorical exclusion instead of allowing for public comment and appeals.
Singleton reiterated that the agency needs to allow for public review of major projects such as timber sales, prescribed burns, off-highway vehicle trails and oil and gas exploration.
Environmental organizations had complained that the blanket withdrawal of all categorical exclusions by the agency’s top administrators was intended to prompt Congress to craft new legislation that would potentially strip public review from all projects, large or small.
“My personal suspicion is that the Washington office’s response – overreaction, if you will – was an attempt to politicize it and get Congress to legislate that decision away and probably even broaden (categorical exclusion) authority,” said Sloan Shoemaker, executive director of the Wilderness Workshop, based in Aspen.
Jim Maxwell, spokesman for the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain region, said the agency was overly cautious because it had been threatened with lawsuits if it issued any categorical exclusions.
He acknowledged that the clarification eliminates most questions about what the agency can do without environmental review.
“The outlook is extremely hopeful for the little guy – the firewood cutter and the Christmas-tree cutter and the little outfitter, folks who want to have weddings,” Maxwell said.
Meanwhile, three Democrats in Colorado’s congressional delegation, Sen. Ken Salazar and Reps. Mark Udall and John Salazar, sent a letter Thursday to Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns requesting an immediate reinstatement of permits delayed under the “plainly overbroad” reaction by the Forest Service “before it causes additional unnecessary harm.”
