Conservation Groups Condemn Park Service Forest-Thinning Project

Conservation organizations are challenging the National Park Service’s multiyear plan to thin forests in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks with tree cutting and burning in order to protect giant sequoia groves.

Wilderness Watch, Sequoia ForestKeeper, and Tule River Conservancy told the US District Court for the Eastern District of California on Monday that the plan aiming to limit wildfire risk to sequoias violates the National Environmental Policy Act and Wilderness Act.

The National Park Service is required to prepare an environmental impact statement under NEPA analyzing any project that’s expected to have a significant effect on the environment, ...