FW: [NFPA] CE legal victory - Sequoia NF

Some good news, for a change.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Bryan Bird
Sent: March 22, 2004 9:39 AM
To: NoCutNews
Subject: [NFPA] CE legal victory - Sequoia NF




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  <http://www.miami.com/images/common/spacer.gif> 	Posted on Fri,
Mar. 19, 2004	   <http://www.miami.com/images/common/spacer.gif> 	
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California's Sequoia National Forest Withdraws Plans As Lawsuits Hold Up
Work


By Bethany Clough, The Fresno Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business
News


Mar. 19 - Plans to restore part of a forest burned in a 2002 wildfire
were stalled again last week.

Work that Sequoia National Forest officials had wanted to do on 238
acres was tied up in court after lawsuits by environmentalists, but the
forest officials withdrew plans earlier this month.

Nearly two years after a campfire blew out of control and became the
McNally fire, burning 150,000 acres, plans for rehabilitating the forest
continue.

One of the first areas forest workers hoped to begin working on is
called Burnt Ridge. West of the Kern River but outside Giant Sequoia
National Monument, the area was one of the most badly burned during the
fire.

Between 75 percent and 80 percent of the trees there were killed, and
forest officials hoped to get in there quickly and remove the dead,
scorched trees. The trees can become fuel for future fires, but the wood
is still profitable to lumber companies up to about two years after the
fire, officials said earlier.

Then the Kernville-based nonprofit group Sequoia ForestKeeper and four
other environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, sued the forest
over its plans to rehabilitate the area.

They wanted the plans to be included in the longer environmental
process, in which the restoration plan can be appealed and the public
can offer input, said Ara Marderosian, Sequoia ForestKeeper executive
director.

Marderosian also said forest workers have not studied the effect that
removing dead trees will have on animals that flock to them after fires.

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order in December, and in
January issued a preliminary injunction that would prevent any work from
happening until the conclusion of a trial scheduled for the end of the
year.

On March 5, the Forest Service withdrew its plans for the area.

Sequoia National Forest Supervisor Art Gaffrey declined to say what
prompted the move. "I can confirm that it's withdrawn, but it's still in
litigation, so I can't comment," he said.

Marderosian had said that if the environmental groups won their lawsuit,
it would have set a legal precedent that would put the president's
Healthy Forests Restoration Act in jeopardy.

When asked about his comments, Gaffrey responded: "I won't respond to
another person's opinion."

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To see more of The Fresno Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.fresnobee.com <http://www.fresnobee.com/> 

C 2004, The Fresno Bee, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Business News.




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