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PROTECTING OUR PUBLIC LANDSALONG CALIFORNIA'S CENTRAL COAST

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September 30, 2009

COURT REJECTS LOS PADRES FOREST
MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR A SECOND TIME

Judge Rules That Southern California Forest Plans
Violate Federal Environmental Laws

SAN FRANCISCO – A federal district court judge ruled late Tuesday that a new U.S. Forest Service management plan for the Los Padres National Forest does not adequately protect the forest’s wildest landscapes in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties. The ruling applies to three other national forests in southern California as well.

In the ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel agreed with seven environmental groups that the Forest Service failed to properly evaluate the impacts from road building and development in pristine roadless areas, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.

The environmental groups are the Center for Biological Diversity, Los Padres ForestWatch, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, California Native Plant Society, California Wilderness Coalition, and The Wilderness Society, all represented by the law firm Earthjustice.

“The Los Padres National Forest is a crown jewel of the Central Coast,” said Jeff Kuyper, Executive Director of Los Padres ForestWatch, one of the plaintiff groups. “We hope the Forest Service will use this court ruling as an opportunity to increase protections for our region’s wild places and wildlife. We need more wild, undeveloped areas, not less.”

“Some of the most wild and pristine areas of southern California’s national forests were given a second chance with this court decision,” said Ileene Anderson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “These areas provide critically important strongholds for endangered species such as steelhead, the California condor and the arroyo toad.”

The management plan for the Los Padres National Forest and the three other southern California forests – Angeles, San Bernardino, and Cleveland – was revised in 2006. That revised plan recommended wilderness protection for only four areas totaling 35,821 acres in the Santa Barbara and Ventura county portions of the Los Padres National Forest. This amount represents just 2% of the forest's land base. The agency failed to identify any new wilderness areas in San Luis Obispo or Monterey counties.

The revised Los Padres plan also opened up 74% of the forest’s pristine roadless areas to new road construction and other development. The Los Padres contains nearly 600,000 acres of roadless areas representing the last remaining unprotected wildlands in the forest. The revised plan zones 443,000 acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas as Back Country, Back Country Motorized Use Restricted, or Developed Area Interface, all of which allow varying levels of road construction and development.


At issue was the forest plan zoning, which opened up hundreds of thousands of acres on the Los Padres to new road building and other development.

The challenged management plans slotted more than 942,000 acres for possible road building or other development. According to the court’s ruling, the Forest Service violated federal environmental law by ignoring the “larger picture” of how allowing more development in roadless areas – while recommending almost no such areas for permanent wilderness protection – would affect the forests’ irreplaceable landscapes and wildlife.

The court also ruled that the Forest Service failed to evaluate alternative approaches to consistently monitoring the health of forests and their wildlife that are harmed by wildfire management, oil development, and motorized off-road vehicle use. The agency only evaluated a single monitoring protocol, one that the conservation groups called insufficient to ensure the health of the forest.

The Forest Service first approved the management plan back in 2005. In evaluating different alternatives, the agency largely ignored a comprehensive conservation alternative developed by the Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups. That alternative would have put in place protections necessary to safeguard the forests’ unique biological diversity. The seven environmental groups filed suit over this and several other flaws in the plans in 2008.

The Los Padres National Forest encompasses nearly 2 million acres in the coastal mountains of central California, stretching almost 220 miles from the Big Sur Coast in Monterey County to the western edge of Los Angeles County. It’s home to dozens of imperiled wildlife, including the endangered California condor, southern steelhead, arroyo toad, California red-legged frog, Smith’s blue butterfly, and California spotted owl.

Strike Two

Yesterday’s ruling comes on the heels of another ruling in a different case in July. That lawsuit, filed by many of the same organizations that filed this one, alleged that the Forest Service and federal wildlife agencies failed to adequately consult with each other before approving the management plans. The judge concluded that the management plans relied on incomplete biological studies in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act.

What’s Next

The judge gave the groups and agencies 50 days to determine what actions are needed to bring the plans into compliance with federal law. Ultimately, the Forest Service will need to reevaluate impacts to roadless areas and perhaps revise the forest plan to better protect roadless areas from development. In the meantime, ForestWatch will continue to monitor and safeguard our forest’s roadless areas until they receive stronger protection.
 

 

 

MORE INFO

Our Lawsuit
Judge's Ruling

 

IN THE NEWS

Forest plan axed
SB Independent

Judge finds forest
plans violate environmental law
Santa Barbara
Daily Sound

Judge says forest service erred in plans for roadless areas
Ventura County Star

Forest Service's wilderness plans scuttled by judge
Riverside
Press-Enterprise

Los Padres plan rejected by judge
SB News-Press

Judge rejects U.S.
plan for road building
in 4 forests

Los Angeles Times

Judge says U.S. Forest Service plans violate federal environmental law
The Mountain Enterprise

Judge tosses road plans for SoCal national forests
San Luis Obispo Tribune

 


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