Environmentalists sue over Quincy logging plan, Associated Press & Record Courier

By Don Thompson

[Forwarded by Resource Media & Shasta High School Environmental Club]

SACRAMENTO -In a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the U.S. Forest Service, environmental groups claimed a 6-year-old federal law aimed at preventing wildfires has degenerated into a backdoor effort to eventually increase logging across 340,000 acres of Sierra Nevada national forests.

Filed in federal court in Sacramento, the suit challenges the Forest Service's effort to log 6,400 acres over five years in the Plumas National Forest west of Quincy, where a coalition of loggers and local conservationists once met to propose what eventually became national fire-prevention policy.

The Forest Service says the clearing project will reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire near the small Sierra mountain town of Meadow Valley, while providing local logging jobs.

The environmental groups say the plan allows the cutting of bigger, more fire-resistant trees in an area already cleared of smaller, more flammable material. They say it also would destroy 4,280 acres of old trees around 16 California spotted owl nesting sites.

The debate goes to the heart of the controversy over fire prevention activities across the West, particularly in a pending plan to manage 11 million acres of national forest land the length of the Sierra range.

Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes said the 6,400 acres are unique, because the agreement "specifically requires us to promote the economic health of that area, and part of that is helping the local timber industry." The tract of land is called the Quincy Library Group after the local coalition that developed the original agreement.

"That's a ruse," responded Chad Hanson of the John Muir Project, one of the groups that sued. "There's nothing in the law that requires them to log the largest 1 percent of the trees remaining in that area." Jobs could just as well be provided by cutting smaller trees and brush or providing other services.

"This is supposed to be about reducing the potential for severe fire near communities," Hanson said. The project, as planned, "will increase the potential for fire right next to the community."

The suit seeks to force the Forest Service to conduct a full environmental impact review before it permits logging of large trees. The suit filed by the Earthjustice law firm also includes the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign and the Plumas Forest Project.

Additional logging under the Quincy Library Group pilot project could include up to 343,500 acres of the Plumas, Lassen and Tahoe national forests over five years, said Earthjustice researcher Emily Brown. The environmental groups contend the Forest Service has not studied the cumulative impact of all the logging.