Timber
sale appeals
Current National Forest
regulations
Lawsuits
Reform from within
The
Process
The Forest Service
has the power to make decisions that involve logging and other projects
that can be harmful to forests. Once the Forest Service makes a decision
to go ahead with a project, a period for appeal exists, usually 45 days,
whereby the opinion of a higher official in the agency can be sought. Logging
and land exchange decisions are usually made by a District Ranger or a Forest
Supervisor. Decisions made by rangers or supervisors can be appealed to
the Regional Forester. Decisions to adopt forest management plans are made
by the Regional Forester and appealed to the Chief of the Forest Service
in Washington, DC.
Contact
the Forest Service
Unlike a lawsuit which usually
requires the assistance of a lawyer to file, administrative appeals can
be done by anyone and done successfully. Since
you are asking one official in an agency to veto the decision of another
official in the same agency, administrative appeals are not often successful,
but at times, they can be won. If you lose the appeal, you are then free
to file a lawsuit in federal court over the proposed action.
Look at examples
TOP
Current National Forest regulations
Regulations under the new law are as follows:
(1) Environmental Assessments (EA’s) will be issued prior to the issuing
of a decision, rather than concurrently. There will follow a 30 day period
for public comment on EA’s. Notice of the opportunity to comment on proposed
projects will be published in local newspapers and mailed to persons who
have either participated in the scoping process for the proposal or who
have written the agency and have asked to be put on a list to receive such
notifications.
(2) Once a final decision is made on a project, there is a 45-day
appeal period. Appeals are limited to people who submitted oral or written
comments during the 30-day comment period, and to people who otherwise notified
the Forest Service of their interest in the proposal. For example, if a
person wrote the agency asking for the EA and other relevant information
about a proposal, but did not receive it from the Forest Service until the
comment period ended, that person’s right to appeal would still be protected.
This also means that while the right to appeal is limited to groups or individuals
who participated in the comment period, the basis of appeals would not be
limited solely to issues raised in the comments. If an appeal is filed,
an automatic stay of action is granted until the appeal is ruled on by the
Forest Service.
(3) Once an appeal is filed, the Forest Service has 30 days to resolve
the appeal, but can extend the deadline an additional 15 days. If the
Forest Service fails to rule on the appeal within 45 days, it is treated
as a "final decision" and the only remaining recourse is to take the Forest
Service to court. This one of the concessions granted to the timber
industry during this process.
(4) The Forest Service is not allowed to proceed with an action at least
until the end of the 45-day appeal period. If no appeals are filed,
the activity may go forward at that time. Again, if an appeal is filed,
the automatic stay remains in place until either the appeal is decided,
or, if the Forest Service fails to rule on the appeal within 45 days, the
stay is extended for an additional 15 days to give the appellants time to
go to court.
(5) Under the new law, no Forest Service decision, including salvage
sales, may be exempted from appeal.
(6) Remember: Without good laws in place, the appeals process
would be worthless. We must continue to fight for stronger forest protection
legislation. To read the law, which includes interesting information about
various regulations in all federal land agencies, order a FREE copy from
the House Document Office: Public Law 102-381 "Department of the Interior
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1993". Phone the House Document
Office at 202-225-3456, or look it up on the Congressional webpage
TOP
Lawsuits
When the Forest Service fails to respond sufficiently to your appeal, or
denies an appeal that has definite merit, the next step citizens can
take is to use the court system—file a lawsuit. Lawsuits are used to
challenge the legality of Forest Service plans and actions (among other
things), and if an illegal plan is being implemented, a lawsuit may result
in a court injunction against the action, immediately halting all work.
Before you can file a lawsuit, you must first establish your "standing":
your eligibility to file against the agency and/or the action that you
are challenging. This means that you must show that the action taken will
have direct adverse effects on you or your interests. Usually, you must
also show that you have been involved in the planning process from early
on, commenting on the forest plans and proposed actions. The
Act to Save America's Forests would direct the Courts to give standing
to any citizen.
A lawsuit can be an expensive and lengthy endeavor, and if at first
you don’t succeed, you need to be prepared to appeal the decision, possibly
many times. The person or group filing a lawsuit must consider their resources
of time and money, the timing of the lawsuit (relative to other events),
and all the possible loopholes. Professional legal guidance is a must.
Timing can be very important before and during a lawsuit. There have
been many tragic instances where a judge has imposed an injunction against
a logging operation, but not before the loggers had the chance to get in
and cut the trees down, making the injunction meaningless, and allowing
the death of one more "last place." The death of the Millennium Grove in
Oregon is an infamous example. Beware of crafty logging companies and politically
motivated judges!
Many larger groups have used lawsuits to bring increased media attention
to this controversial issue. The success of the northern spotted owl Endangered
Species Act case has brought public awareness of forest destruction to unprecedented
heights.
The strength of these high profile lawsuits lies in their effect as a deterrent.
Groups often use the threat of a lawsuit to induce the Administration or
Congress to take action to correct a problem. Unfortunately, most of
the laws governing the Forest Service currently have such weak enforcement
provisions that there is very little a court can do to stop the USFS from
continuing with illegal sales. The most successful cases have been filed
under a handful of laws such as the Endangered Species Act, which require
a lot of expertise and money to bring to court.
Laws with strong citizen enforcement provisions, such as the Act to Save
America's Forests, would provide for dispersed enforcement of forest
laws by average citizens. For more information on citizen enforcement, see
Government
101.
As with the appeals process, citizens’ rights to judicial review are
also being threatened by the Forest Service and Congress. What we are
seeing are continuing attempts to concentrate more and more power in the
hands of the Administration and its agency, the Forest Service. This threatens
the very structure of our democratic system. TOP
Reform From Within
Many activists within the agencies they are trying to reform are vigorously
exercising their right to Freedom of Speech. The group Forest Service
Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE) is an example of the "whistleblower"
activist groups. As part of an agency gone astray, members of the Forest
Service have raised their voices to steer the Forest Service towards new
goals of biodiversity and sustainability. This dissident group has caused
upheaval within the Forest Service, giving many employees the courage to
speak up. They have led to heavy handed Forest Service responses like
the political ouster in 1991 of Region 1 (Idaho, Montana) Supervisor John
Mumma, who refused to break environmental laws in order to "get the cut
out". FSEEE has organized chapters in all regions of the country and continues
to be an outspoken advocate of environmental ethics within the Forest Service.
If you are a member of an environmental group, you should urge it to
publicly support the Act to Save America's Forests. Encourage
your group to create an aggressive agenda for nationwide forest protection
legislation and local assistance in defense against forest destruction.
Sign your group onto the Save America's Forests coalition, and join in this
historic movement. For more information about the
Act to Save America's Forests, and how you can join the campaign
to pass the Act into law, see www.saveamericasforests.org .TOP
