Forest Service Plan to Remove Burnt Trees Upheld on Appeal (1)

The US Forest Service was cleared in its environmental review of a logging project slated for 10 national forests in California, after a federal appeals panel ruled Friday the agency met the “hard look” standard under the statute.

In an unpublished decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the agency’s environmental impact statement for the 400,000-acre Region 5 Post-Disturbance Hazardous Tree Management Project while also declining to address the US Supreme Court’s new standard for judicial review of National Environmental Policy Act cases.

American Whitewater, the Center for Biological Diversity, and five other environmental groups argued ...