http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/07/12/news/state/71105204704.txt

Judge rules sequoia monument fire plan violated
federal law

By: BRIAN MELLEY - Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- A judge ruled Monday that a fire-control
plan for Giant Sequoia National Monument violated federal law because the
blueprint, which includes logging the preserve that is home to two-thirds of
the world's largest trees, did not undergo an environmental review.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled that
the U.S. Forest Service failed to comply with the National Environmental
Protection Act and that its plans to manage the 327,769-acre central California preserve
could have significant environmental consequences.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer
sued in March to halt the plan that would have allowed commercial logging in
the monument designed to preserve the ancient monster conifers.

"In a whole series of forest management cases, the
Bush Administration has ignored federal law while showing great deference to
the timber industry's interests," Lockyer's
office said in a statement.

Breyer did not rule what the Forest Service needs to do, but scheduled
a hearing Aug. 12 in San Francisco
federal court to discuss the case.

The Forest Service argued that it didn't need to file an
environmental impact statement because it overlapped with other documents that
provide environmental assessments.

A spokesman for the Forest Service did not immediately
return a phone call for comment after business hours.

The service had defended timber cuts on trees with
diameters up to 30 inches as needed to protect the 38 sequoia groves in the
monument that is part of the Sequoia National Forest east of the San Joaquin Valley.
If a small fire spread, it could devastate the trees, spokesman Matt Mathes
said at the time.

The Sierra Club estimated that loggers could cut 7.5
million board feet each year, or enough to fill 1,500 logging trucks.

"They basically tried to do a shortcut," said
Eric Antebi of the Sierra Club. "If they did the
full environmental review they would have found there were better ways to
accomplish the same thing without putting a rare sequoia forest at risk."

Central California is the only place in the world where sequoias are found. The
trees grow up to 270 feet high and 30 feet wide and live for thousands of
years.

President Clinton created the monument in April 2000,
banning logging unless it was necessary for public or environmental protection.

Several lawsuits have been filed since, including a failed
effort by timber interests, recreational groups and Tulare
County to reverse the designation on
the grounds that Clinton
acted beyond his authority. Environmental groups have gone to court to block
the fire plan.

Lockyer has filed several challenges to federal logging plans. While
the Forest Service has claimed he doesn't have legal standing in the cases, Breyer ruled that the state had an interest because two
state-owned forests lie within the Sequoia
National Forest.

On the Net:

Giant Sequoia National Monument: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/gsnm.html

Attorney General Bill Lockyer: http://www.ag.ca.gov

Maps of areas where logging would be permitted: http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/sequoiaplan