In 2018 and 2019, the Forest Service proposed and approved two commercial logging projects across 4.5 square miles near Mt. Pinos without environmental review standard for activities of that size and scope. Despite our initial comments, many requests for reconsideration, and public outcry, the agency moved forward with the projects under a categorical exclusion without any official objection options—leaving us no choice but to file suit with our partners.
The first lawsuit we filed last year challenged the project on Tecuya Ridge—an area in the San Emigdio Mountains just north of Mt. Pinos. This project would involve cutting down trees of all sizes along 12 miles of the ridgeline, including in the Antimony Inventoried Roadless Area. Trees that would be cut commercially include Jeffrey pines and white firs. Singleleaf pinyon pines would also be cut (and possibly sold as firewood), while up to 95% of sagebrush and other shrubs would be masticated. Altogether, over 1,600 acres of forest would be impacted.
One of our primary concerns with the project is its potential impacts to critically endangered California condors. Tecuya Ridge sits below an important flyway that condors use when traveling between the Sespe Condor Sanctuary or the adjacent Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge and the Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge or Tehachapi Mountains to the north. Before condors nearly went extinct in the wild, the Tecuya Ridge area was used for roosting overnight during these long flights. And since at least early 2000s, condors reintroduced into the wild have been roosting in large living and dead trees along the ridge. In fact, we used Fish and Wildlife Service tracking data (as well as the agency’s own methods) to delineate 79 instances of roosting within the project area or within 0.5 miles of it since 2014. Incredibly, 25 of these occurred in the last quarter of 2019—the most recently available period of data.
However, both the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service ignored our concerns and refused to acknowledge their own data that suggest condors are actively roosting in the very trees they may cut down when implementing the project.
We filed the Tecuya Ridge project lawsuit with our partners at the Center for Biological Diversity and John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute. Three logging industry groups filed interventions on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service, claiming they had economic interests in the projects. We are waiting to receive their briefs. The hearing for the lawsuit is set for August.
The other project we challenged covers over 1,200 acres at base of Mt. Pinos and the west end of Cuddy Valley. Similar to the Tecuya Ridge project, this would involve removing trees of all sizes, including commercial Jeffrey pine and white fir. Pinyon pine would also be cut, and up to 95% of sagebrush and other shrubs would be masticated.
We filed a lawsuit against the Cuddy Valley project with our partners at the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute and the Mountain Communities for Fire Safety—a citizen-led organization in the area. Our primary concern with the project is the potential for it to increase fire hazards by removing large, fire-resistant trees while altering the forest structure in a way that can increase the speed of fire spread. We have filed our briefs and declarations for the lawsuit, and the hearing is set for May 4 (though this could change due to COVID-19 concerns).
We will continue to provide updates on the lawsuits as they move through the legal process.
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