Underwood Mountain Roadless Area on the Six Rivers National Forest (spoiled by road construction during a fire used to facilitate logging)

Finally after a decade of court battles the 2001 Roadless Rule is once again the law of the land. Nearly 50 million acres of America’s richest natural resource—our National Forests—are now protected by a decree of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court has firmly and unanimously taken a stance for wildlife, forests, and clean water.

This decision is amongst the most significant conservation victories in several decades and is powerfully constructed despite an array of industry foes and their army of lobbyists who sought to unleash road builders, loggers, and mining engineers in some of our most pristine natural sanctuaries.

For purposes of the rule, “roadless areas” are defined as contiguous blocks of backcountry public land that are 5,000 acres or larger and do not have improved roads. Those opposing this rule defended their claim that a national forest road system covering more than 380,000 miles that is eight times the size of the federal highway system was just not enough.  These wild areas will be barred from new road construction and logging with some exceptions, including when fire or other catastrophic events threaten human lives or property.

Roadless areas are some of the most ecologically important lands that we have remaining in the nation.  The rule is crucial to prevent the continued fragmentation of roadless lands, which serve as sanctuaries for wildlife. The decision affirms the value of backcountry areas in sustaining healthy and secure habitat for fish and wildlife, including big game, and conserves America’s backcountry recreational activities and outdoor heritage.

The 10^th Circuit Court’s unanimous decision found that the roadless rule did not violate NEPA, the Wilderness Act, the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act and the National Forest Management Act – a victory on all counts!  The 2001 rule has now been upheld legally in both the 9^th and 10^th Circuit Courts of Appeals thus removing the cloud of legal uncertainty surrounding the rule for a decade.

The 2001 Roadless Rule is in effect nationwide except in Idaho, where the U.S Forest Service did a separate rulemaking that was completed in 2008.

And the legal battle isn’t over, with a challenge from the state of Alaska still pending before the federal district court in Washington, D.C.  Separately, the state is also appealing a March ruling by a federal judge in the District of Alaska who struck down a Bush administration rule that exempted the Tongass National Forest from the roadless rule. That case is now pending before the 9th Circuit. Nonetheless, the decision by the 10th Circuit is great news for wildcountry!

 http://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/this_week/pdf/09-8075.pdf

The Klamath National Forest withdrew the decision notice for the High Bar Mine proposal rather than address EPIC and our allies’ appeal to the ill-conceived mining project. Now the agency plans to re-do the NEPA documents, for the third time. The mining operation proposal threatens McNiel Creek, a key cold water tributary crucial for the Salmon River’s fish runs.

A little background

Under the terms of the antiquated 1872 mining law, Wabuska Mining LLC has proposed to develop the High Bar Placer Mine in the McNeal watershed near the Salmon River in Trinity County. An Environmental Assessment has been prepared to analyze the project known as High Mar Mine Phase 2, which includes the following activities:

• Removal of approximately 1.75 acres of surface vegetation (and piling for later burning by Forest Service personnel) in preparation for excavation and milling operations,

• Excavation and stockpiling of approximately 19,000 cubic yards of topsoil and overburden soil,

• Excavation of approximately 24,500 cubic yards of ore material for on-site milling,

• Ore milling at the High Bar Placer Mine, including housing of mill personnel,

• Development of a water line for milling purposes from McNeal Creek,

• Continued use and maintenance of the existing non-system access road,

• Reclamation of the mined sites, with a Reclamation Bond to be paid to the Forest Service by the claimant/operator should claimant/operator fail to reclaim the site.

It is interesting to note that in a recent Best Management Practices Water Quality Monitoring Report, the Klamath National Forest assessed the High Bar Mine and access road and determined that the development that has occurred at this location up until this point did not include adequate measures, as layed out in the permit process, to reduce environmental impacts. Clearly outlined “erosion control measures had not been implemented, and removed vegetation had not been properly treated…”

EPIC and Klamath Forest Alliance staffer Kimberly Baker investigating logging in the Orleans Fuels project.

A coalition of three environmental organizations, including EPIC, joined the Karuk Tribe in filing a lawsuit May 12 against the Six Rivers National Forest challenging the Forest Service’s implementation of the Orleans Community Fuels Reduction Project (OCFR). The complaint charges that the Forest Service violated several federal laws by allowing inappropriate logging and heavy equipment operation in an area considered sacred to the Karuk Tribe, as well as logging that is not consistent with the fuels treatment and fire protection purpose of the project.

“We are proud to work with the Tribe to protect the landscapes they have been caring for over thousands of years. There is no community in Northern California more capable and sophisticated than the Orleans and Somes Bar community in terms of their ability to plan and prepare for fire, and to live with fire on the landscape,” said Scott Greacen, Executive Director of EPIC.

The Orleans area, like many communities in Western forests, faces real threats to public safety from fires that can burn more intensely because decades of fire suppression and industrial logging have left heavy fuel loads and fire-prone timber plantations. Local community members, including tribal fire crews and the Orleans-Somes Bar Fire Safe Council, have created and begun to implement a carefully drawn plan to protect residences, key egress routes, and defensible spaces – the  Orleans Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

Rather than fund and follow that existing plan, the Forest Service repeatedly attempted over years of meetings between the Karuk Tribe, local land owners, conservation groups and restoration workers that have led to the current Orleans Fuels Project, to create a commercial logging project. The agency has done so by enlarging the area of the project and targetting valuable large trees which, from a fuels standpoint, should be retained rather than logged. While carefully designed understory thinning is critically necessary to reduce fire risks, conventional logging actually increases fire risks over the long term. (more…)