(Note: Enviro Lawsuit Against Fire-Risk Reduction Project.)

February 25, 2003

The Reno Gazette Journal

Associated Press

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Environmentalists won a reprieve Tuesday for 4,300 acres of old-growth forest that burned in a federal roadless area west of Lake Tahoe, though salvage logging on a larger area nearby will proceed.

Deputy Regional Forester Bernard Weingardt in Vallejo, Calif., upheld the environmentalists' administrative appeal challenging the logging in the area without roads, where the Forest Service's strictest forest protections apply.

But the Tahoe National Forest can move forward with plans to log about 5,000 acres of national forest land bordering the Duncan Canyon Roadless Area. The logging is planned for trees burned in the Red Star Fire that scorched 17,000 acres in September 2001 about 15 miles south of U.S. Interstate 80 and 20 miles west of Lake Tahoe.

National Forest officials say the logging is important to regenerating the forest and reducing future risks.

Weingardt rejected arguments that the logging planned outside the area without roads was illegal. Environmentalists contended that the effects on wildlife, especially birds that are dependent on fire-killed trees, had not been adequately assessed.

Environmentalists said they were pleased the roadless area would be spared and were considering filing a lawsuit to halt the rest of the project.

"We're very unhappy about what this will mean to old forest areas outside roadless areas. It sets a very bad precedent," said Craig Thomas, director of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign.

The Wilderness Society, American River Wildlands and Sierra Foothills Audubon Society joined in the administrative appeal of the project along the Middle Fork of the American River near French Meadows Reservoir -- a popular weekend destination for San Francisco Bay area residents.

Forest Service regional officials made a similar ruling Tuesday on a related appeal over the same area by the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity and American Lands Alliance.

However, Forest Service officials said they weren't ruling out logging in the roadless area in the future.

"I would characterize the effect of our decision as more of a stumbling block than a brick wall," said Matt Mathes, a Forest Service spokesman at regional headquarters in Vallejo.

"We still agree with their [Tahoe National Forest officials] intent to go into Duncan Canyon and remove some of the dead trees and improve the health of the area," he said.

"Basically, we in the regional office feel if they can fine tune their documentation and better explain their rationale, they can still continue their efforts there," he said.

Steve Eubanks, supervisor for the Tahoe National Forest, said late Tuesday that his staff intends to "strengthen the analysis" and submit an amended logging plan in the next month or so.

"We feel like it is something that can be fairly easily fixed," he said. He said he would not be surprised if the environmentalists file a lawsuit in federal court.

"Basically every fire restoration project in California the last few years has been litigated," he said.

Officials for the Tahoe National Forest say many of the biggest, standing dead trees must be removed from some of the burned groves of centuries-old trees to make way for regeneration of another old-growth forest. They said they have worked with environmental groups for more than a year to try to accommodate their concerns.

"We are leaving more trees than we are removing and we are removing only dead trees," project leader Karen Jones said earlier. "If a tree has just one green needle, it stays."

Chad Hanson, director of the John Muir Project, said the agency's plans will result in removal of the largest trees while "leaving behind all the kindling and slash.

"They've got the whole thing backward," Hanson said from Cedarville, Calif.

"They are taking the largest, least flammable material that is most important to wildlife while leaving behind the smallest and most flammable material. And yet they are calling it a fire-risk reduction project."

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