San Francisco - The Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) filed a federal lawsuit today to challenge the U.S. Forest Service's approval of logging in ancient forests adjacent to the remote Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness. The suit charges the Forest Service with violating the National Forest Management Act and other laws, alleging that it failed to protect fish, wildlife, and old growth forests in authorizing the logging sale and that it would exacerbate future wildfire risks.

The "Divide Auger" Timber Sale (TS) is located on the Mendocino National Forest in the Thomes Creek watershed, a free-flowing tributary to the Sacramento River. The Divide Auger TS includes 21 separate logging units and would remove 4.5 million board feet, or 700 logging truckloads, from old growth and "late-successional" forests. Located a great distance from any community, the Forest Service stated that a purpose of the logging operation is "hazard fuel reduction."

"This plan exemplifies the problems with the Bush Administration's policies. These large old growth trees are resilient to fire and provide habitat for a number of rare species--exactly the kind of forests that should be protected to reduce the threat of catastrophic fire events and for wildlife and watershed health," Scott Greacen, EPIC's National Forest Program Coordinator, said.

The forests at issue provide some of the last remaining habitat for the northern spotted owl on the eastern portion of its range and for the spring- and winter-run Chinook salmon, which are highly imperiled in the Sacramento River watershed. Dams and other problems have blocked access to more than 95% of the historical spawning habitat in the Sacramento River, making Thomes Creek a critical stream for both steelhead and Chinook salmon.

"This logging sale is symptomatic of the Bush Administration's narrow-minded view when it comes to forest management issues. While it talks about making communities safe from fire, in reality, its policies are all about cutting ancient trees in extremely remote areas," said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, staff attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC), which is representing EPIC in the case. "The Forest Service not only failed to analyze the destructive impacts of this type of logging, but adding insult to injury, it also attempted to hide these impacts from the public," he added.

The lawsuit accuses the Forest Service of altering documents after they were circulated to the public for review and comment, and of concealing information in internal reports that were not disclosed to the public.

"The Bush Administration is trying to shut the public out of national forest management decisions because they know their policies are illegal and wildly out of step with public opinion. When an agency tries to keep the wraps on a project, there's almost always something under the sheet the public would object to," Christine Ambrose, EPIC's National Forest Monitor, said.

WELC is a nonprofit public-interest environmental law firm with offices in Eugene, Oregon and Taos, New Mexico. EPIC was formed in 1977 and is dedicated to preserving, protecting, and restoring biodiversity, native species, watersheds, and ecosystems in northern California. EPIC is headquartered in Garberville, California.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and was assigned to Magistrate Chen. The case number is 03-4396.


Additional Facts

The Mendocino National Forest encompasses 894,399 acres within North Coastal Range of California in portions of Colusa, Lake, Glenn, Mendocino, Tehama, and Trinity Counties.

The Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness encompasses 156,000 acres of rugged country and includes portions of the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity, and Six Rivers National Forests, and 7,400 acres of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

The Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness provides critical habitat for the northern spotted owl, and also contains suitable nesting and denning habitat for goshawk, marten, and fisher, and big-game habitat for black-tailed deer and black bear.

An 11-mile stretch of Thomes Creek is eligible for protection under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.