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The Southern Environmental Law Center has sued the National Forest Service alleging its Nantahala-Pisgah Forest logging plan violates federal law.
The lawsuit 鈥� filed on behalf of MountainTrue, the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Defenders of Wildlife 鈥� argues that the 2023 forest planning document is not in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act, or the National Procedure Act.
In the filing, the SELC argues the proposed levels of logging would fail to give ecosystems a chance to recover from floods and wildfires. The Forest Service maintains that logging will recreate diverse habitats of the past.
The lawsuit seeks to have the Forest Service withdraw and revise its Forest Plan, which ultimately guides short- and long-term land management policies on federal lands.
The full environmental review process for the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan took . It sets guidance for forest management of 1 million acres of national forest in Western North Carolina for the next two decades.
The Forest Service has toggled between prioritizing conservation and remediation of forestland and taking a more economically-centered, timber production-oriented approach, for much of its history. The Forest Service initially worked to replant slopes and prevent erosion after destructive clearcutting across the country contributed to the Dust Bowl, but, Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Sam Evans said, primarily focused on timber farming after World War II necessitated high levels of homebuilding.
Previous forest planning rules emphasized economic efficiency, but the instituted a new focus on ecological and landscape resilience within the national forest system, and the Nantahala-Pisgah forest plan was the first to be planned under the new rule.
SELC alleges the Forest Service violated National Environmental Policy Act requirements by failing to account for natural disturbances and insufficiently analyzed forest habitat for both old and younger patches of forest, instead opening up as many as .
鈥淭hey instead decided, hey, we're going to do a lot of logging, pure logging, old school logging, just like we did under the last plan,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淲e're just going to do more of it. We're going to do it more places. We're going to take away the meager protections for things like soil and water and steep slopes and old growth that we had.鈥�
Evans said prior logging is in part to blame for the predicament. Clear-cutting in the early 20th century left the forests in the region to regrow all at the same time. A forest of trees that are all the same age has less habitat diversity compared to a more diverse forest where habitats are created naturally and over long periods of time.
Rather than increased logging, the lawsuit argues, major weather events 鈥� like the hurricanes and wildfires that have ravaged the region recently 鈥� will support new successional habitat in the future, even as they cause immense destruction.
鈥淵ou're going to see a lot more disturbance in these forests in the future than you have in the past,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淭he pendulum is swinging. We don't need the logging on top of it.鈥�
Evans contends that it鈥檚 difficult to contest individual logging projects because new timber sales are being advertised and bid with little public notice and no chance for public comment.
鈥淭he Pisgah National Forest has already prepared at least 15 timber sales spanning 2,153 acres including several sensitive and unique areas that do not involve public comment periods or predecisional environmental review,鈥� the lawsuit contends.
In December, the Forest Service told BPR leaders that it would consider changes to the Forest Plan after handling heavy fuel loads on the ground. This week, Forest Service representatives told BPR in an emailed statement that it would not comment on SELC鈥檚 litigation.
鈥淩ight now, the USDA Forest Service continues to focus on the issues that matter to Western North Carolinians following Hurricane Helene 鈥� reducing the unprecedented amount of downed trees and woody debris fueling wildfires, restoring access across the Pisgah National Forest to the public and first responders, and assisting in the area鈥檚 long-term economic recovery,鈥� the Forest Service said.
