Forest Service’s Oregon Restoration Project Approved on Appeal

An Oregon forest restoration project can move forward after the Ninth Circuit approved a US Forest Service plan over the protest of an environmental group.

The service didn’t need to produce a privilege log or deliberative materials because there was no showing of bad faith, Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said.

Adding thousands of pages from the administrative record of the first challenge also isn’t necessary for judicial review of the Forest Service, he said.

The environmental assessment the Forest Service filed considered “the effects of no action and several alternatives ...