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Hellbender Journal Summer/Fall 2001 East Side Update: Lawsuit Uncovers Old Growth Logging Cover-Up, Sierra Club Joins Suit In May, the Allegheny Defense Project joined with numerous other organizations in a lawsuit to challenge the East Side Logging Project - the largest timber sale in the eastern United States. East Side, which calls for clearcutting on 3,000 acres, logging on another 5,000 acres, 15 miles of new road construction, and over 3,500 acres of herbicide spraying in the Allegheny National Forest, had resulted in thousands of letters, petition signatures, and e-mails of protest. In 1997, the East Side timber sale, then called "Mortality II", was thrown out by a federal court in Pittsburgh. Because this project has been to court before, the lawsuit was filed as a related case and wound-up before the same judge - William Standish. Currently, the case is being handled by a magistrate while the lawyers brief their arguments. Cover-up of Old Growth Logging Besides approving logging adjacent to the largest track of original old growth forest in Pennsylvania, East Side also approved logging within an area at Blue Jay Creek which was designated as an area to be protected and allowed to become true old growth forest. Another five cutting units occur within proposed old growth corridor areas and another fifteen logging areas are adjacent to other areas identified to become old growth forest. The lawsuit challenges the Forest Service's failure to consider negative impacts to any of these particular areas. On October 15, 2001, the Forest Service filed the "Administrative Record" for the current lawsuit. Normally, such a record would include only those documents which were prepared before the decision was made on December 12, 2000, and necessary appeal-related documentation. The Forest Service, however, tried to bolster the record up once they realized that they had made a terrible decision. So, on February 5th, 2001, two months after the East Side Decision, the Forest Service prepared a new old growth analysis. Nowhere did the original analysis even acknowledge, let alone consider the impacts of, logging in and adjacent to old growth areas. The Forest Service had repeatedly told the press, the public, and elected officials that there is no logging of designated old growth. The February 5th post-decisional analysis proves that the Forest Service is logging in the area designated as old growth at Blue Jay Creek. The document also proves that they are logging in areas that a 1995 Forest Service report recommended for old growth designation. In order to hide the fact that they are logging at Blue Jay Creek, the Forest Service had secretly reduced the size of the area that was to be protected as old growth. In their original Mortality II Environmental Assessment (EA), the Forest Service stated that "This area (approximately 70 acres) was previously designated as an isolated 'old growth' area under the 1990 West Branch Environmental Assessment, Marienville Ranger District." According to the February 5th analysis, the Forest Service has secretly reduced the size of the old growth area to 23 acres. In fact, the February 5th document reveals that the Forest Service used GPS technology to identify the boundaries of the cutting units and consciously used that GPS data to change the old growth boundary. Prior to October 15th, this fact had never been revealed to the public. There was no environmental review or public disclosure of the Forest Service's obviously illegal actions. In addition to the post-decisional analysis on old growth issues, the Forest Service tried to secretly change their responses to our appeal points on herbicides and prepared a document in August, 2001, that specifically attempted to rationalize their failure to protect soils from logging. All of these documents support ADP's contention that the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for East Side was inadequate.
East Side Logging Stopped The good news is that so far no cutting has occurred. The Forest Service has agreed to hold up contracting of the sales until at least November 20th and to give ADP seven days notice before any logging occurs. If the Forest Service and timber industry attempt to begin logging at the East Side logging area we will likely file for a preliminary injunction to stop the cutting. Sierra Club Joins the Lawsuit The National Sierra Club has joined the lawsuit challenging the East Side Timber Sale decision. The addition of the Sierra Club contributes towards the already substantial list of Plaintiffs seeking to stop this egregious timber sale. It also represents the growing dissatisfaction with how the Forest Service has handled the East Side timber sale. Timber Industry Attacks ADP's Legal Representation It's not enough for the Forest Service and timber industry to have representation from the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and a major D.C. law firm. Out of Court, timber interests have attempted to undermine ADP's pro bono (free) legal representation being provided by Tom Buchele, a professor of law and Director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh. Led by State Senator Joe Scarnati, the timber industry has launched a full force fight to try to get Buchele fired for representing the ADP in our case in what is widely accepted to be a controversial timber sale. We need help monitoring! Help ADP monitor East Side logging areas. Visit the Forest Watch section of our website to download maps of East Side logging areas. Phone or e-mail our forest watch staff at (814) 223-4996 or jkleissler@alleghenydefense.org to find out what areas need monitoring. |
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