California sues feds over oil drilling, roads in national forests

SAN FRANCISCO
February 28, 2008 11:12am

California is suing the U.S. Forest Service for adopting “illegal forest management plans” that permit road construction and oil drilling in California’s largest national forests.

“The United States Forest Service adopted illegal forest management plans that threaten California’s pristine national forests with road construction and oil drilling,” says state Attorney General Jerry Brown in announcing the lawsuit Thursday.

“The Forest Service should scrap these destructive forest plans and protect California’s natural areas as required by law,” Mr. Brown says.

The Forest Service's plans allow road construction on more than 500,000 acres of roadless area within the Angeles, Los Padres, Cleveland and San Bernardino National Forest. California’s lawsuit alleges that those plans ignore California’s moratorium on road construction in pristine areas of the national forests.

The four national forests include over 3.5 million acres of federally-managed public land, from Big Sur to the Mexican border. The forests provide habitat for 31 threatened and endangered animals and 29 plants as well as 34 animal species and 134 plants recognized as sensitive, the lawsuit notes.

The Los Padres National Forest, which is one of the state’s largest national forests, also provides habitat for the California condor and is the site of the principal effort to bring this species back from the brink of extinction.

In 2005 and 2006, the Forest Service assured the Resources Agency, in writing, that it would not allow road construction on California’s roadless areas, the attorney general’s office says.

California Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman today criticized the Forest Service for not honoring this agreement.

“Time and again we have tried to hold the Forest Service to their word on the roadless policy. They have failed to live up to their promises,” says Mr. Chrisman.

Comments on this story

nelson guda 2/28/08 1:07 PM
Road construction in National Forests is an ongoing problem. The 2001 Roadless Rule was an attempt to solve some of the financial and environmental problems caused by the over-building and under-maintenance of roads in our national forests. For its value to the environment, the Roadless Rule was arguably the most significant conservation related action by the federal government since the creation of the Wilderness Act in 1964 - setting aside nearly 60 million acres from most road-building. Despite the significance of the rule, few people know what lands were affected by the rule. You can explore all the roadless areas in California and the rest of the US on Roadlessland.org, a non-commercial site that includes dynamic maps, thousands of photos, comments and more. Find out what lands are covered by the rule, and send a letter to the forest service with your opinion.