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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.
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