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Roadside Fuels Management Shut Down on the Los Padres NF
A roadside fuels project on the Los Padres National Forest (LPNF) was enjoined on March 4, 2011, by United States District Judge Lucy H. Koh (Northern District of California).
The project, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), proposed the clearing of flammable vegetation within ten feet of either side of approximately 750 miles of USFS roads within the LPNF.
An eco-litigious group, Las Padres ForestWatch [here] appealed the project. The Preliminary Injunction decision is [here].
Judge Koh noted that the LPNF failed to produce an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or an Environmental Assessment (EA), but instead relied upon a Categorical Exclusion (CE) from NEPA review.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) allows the use of a CE when proposed actions “do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment”. EIS’s and EA’s are required when “extraordinary circumstances” indicate that ” a normally excluded action may have a significant environmental effect.”
LPNF Supervisor Peggy Hernandez had determined in 2009 that no such “extraordinary circumstances” were evident, based on the findings of the LPNF staff biologists. Judge Koh disagreed. From the decision:
Defendants argue that the Forest Service performed an adequate level of scoping in internally reviewing the Project’s potential environmental effects and in determining that the Project was subject to a “Road Maintenance” Categorical Exclusion. Under these circumstances, Defendants continue, no public notice, no interested party participation, and no interagency consultation was required. The Court does not agree. …
The relevant regulations do not dictate a specific type or amount of scoping and/or public participation. In connection with the challenged Project, however, Defendants allowed for no public input and no interagency consultation in evaluating the environmental impacts of the Project. This behavior flies in the face of the goals of NEPA scoping, which demand an “early and open process for determining the scope of issues to be addressed and for identifying the significant issues related to a proposed action.” See 40 C.F.R. § 1501.7; see also 40 C.F.R. § 1506.6, “Public Involvement” (requiring all federal agencies to “[m]ake diligent efforts to involve the public in preparing and implementing their NEPA procedures.”). In this case, there was no scoping notice (or notice of any kind) prior to the Project’s approval as a Categorical Exclusion in September 11, 2009.
The LPNF failed to go through the proper procedures. The stimulus monies (ARRA) were to be spent as quickly as possible, and the LPNF rushed into the project. They screwed up.
On the other hand, clearing vegetation for ten feet on either side of a forest road is a pathetically minor treatment. It is not going to impact the environment, except to make the roads passable in case of fire.
The LPNF has a fire problem. A megafire problem. In 2007 the LPNF hosted the Zaca Fire (240,000 acres). In 2008 they enjoyed the Basin/Indians Fires (244,000 acres). They also were the source of the Gap Fire (2008, 9,443 acres), the Tea Fire (2008, 1,940 acres, 210 residences destroyed), the Jesusita Fire (2009, 8,733 acres, 80 residences destroyed), and the La Brea Fire (2009, 89,500 acres) among many, many others including the Marble-Cone Fire (1977, 178,000 acres).
Three of those fires are on the all-time Top Ten largest fires in California state history.
The eco-litigious Plaintiff, Los Padres ForestWatch, claims to care about fire and fuels management, but their actions belie their words. They also claim to care about “spiritual” sites of Native American tribes, but they are clueless about traditional land management with anthropogenic fire. The Los Padres ForestWatch officers and staff are exclusively white liberals with an emphasis on lawyers [here]. Their partners are the usual pro-holocaust anti-human eco-litigious mainstays [here].
It is difficult to see anyone in this courtroom drama who actually gives a sh*t whether the LPNF explodes into more severe and extremely destructive megafires or not. The Defendants, Plaintiffs, lawyers, and judge are all blithely uncaring about the prospects of further catastrophic incineration of the LPNF.
They are all holocausters. Burn baby burn. Responsible stewardship, based on historical and traditional methods for historical and traditional purposes, is not on their radar screens.
The taxpayers fund them all, though. The taxpayers pay for the government functionaries, the judges, the lawyers, and the fires. The taxpayers get robbed and then the taxpayer’s land is destroyed. It’s a catastrophic annihilation for profit scheme. All the players are in on it.
The solution set is not simple. A host of robbers, arsonists, and kleptocrats need to be subdued first. Cutting off the funding to all them is not an easy task, nor would that necessarily result in better land management. It’s a place to start, however.
