Challenge to Oregon Forest Service Project Denied New Hearing

A US Forest Service plan to thin an Oregon national park can move forward after the Ninth Circuit Tuesday declined an environmental group’s request for the appeals court to rehear the group’s protest en banc.

In 2020, the Forest Service issued a notice of its decision to begin a “restoration project” at the 218-acre Walton Lake recreation site in the Ochoco National Forest in Oregon. The project authorized thirty-five acres of sanitation logging and 143 acres of commercial and noncommercial thinning to reduce the risk of wildfires and bark beetle infestation.

Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project sued the Forest Service, alleging ...