Conservation Advocates Sue U.S. Forest Service

Conservation Advocates Sue U.S. Forest Service over New Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Management Plan

A coalition of North Carolina conservation organizations has sued the U.S. Forest Service, asserting that the agency violated federal law when developing the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest 2023 land management plan that has been “upended” by Tropical Storm Helene. 

The lawsuit, filed on March 27, followed up on a letter sent to the agency in December, urging the forest service to reconsider elements of the 2023 plan and arguing that the kind of damages caused from Helene will “continue to occur at rates far beyond those accounted for” in the Forest Service plan. 

The plaintiff organizations, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, MountainTrue, and the North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club, are represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC).

Plan Could Hurt Local Economies and Degrade Ecosystems

In its news release, SELC said, “The Forest Service was handed a collaboratively developed Forest Plan proposal that allowed for logging while minimizing harmful impacts. However, the agency rejected the compromise out of hand in favor of a Plan that aims to quintuple the amount of logging in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests and expand logging and roadbuilding into sensitive habitats. More than 23,000 people commented to oppose the Plan which will degrade important ecosystems, imperil rare species, make our forests less resilient, and hurt local economies that depend on recreation and tourism within the forests.”

“These flaws were magnified by Hurricane Helene, which not only wreaked havoc on western North Carolina communities but also decimated forests. The Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan did not anticipate the level of damage brought by this kind of climate-change-fueled storm, instead justifying high levels of logging by arguing that there is not enough disturbance from storms and fire. Logging healthy forests at the high levels called for in the Plan—levels the agency has refused to adjust in the wake of Helene—will compound the harm to these landscapes.”

“The Forest Service’s final plan for the Nantahala-Pisgah was a major step backward. It opened up old-growth forests, rare species habitat, and remote backcountry to commercial logging while failing to address critical needs like road maintenance, trail infrastructure, and monitoring. Logging can play a valuable role in our region, but this plan sacrificed balance in favor of conflict,” Josh Kelly, Resilient Forests Director for MountainTrue, said. “That’s why we’ve had to make the difficult decision to challenge the Forest Service in court.”

Hurricane Helene’s Impact

Other representatives pointed to the flawed assumptions contained in the plan due to its dismissal of the updated realities of climate change. “A forest plan that sacrifices the needs of imperiled wildlife while accelerating logging without appropriate sideboards is no forest plan at all,” said Ben Prater, Southeast Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife. “Instead of supporting rare species like forest bats, fish, mussels and amphibians, this Plan ramps up logging justified by faulty assumptions that are even more precarious in the wake of Hurricane Helene. This Plan was built on the assumption that natural disturbances would create less than 200 acres of open and young forest habitat a year. By that metric, Helene caused 400 years’ worth of disturbance to some of the most important habitats in the region in a matter of days. The Plan was already flawed, and now it is completely out of step with the realities on the ground.”

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