Lawsuits take on Bush's Sierra logging policy

The California state attorney general's office and a coalition of conservation groups filed back-to-back lawsuits this week to block a Bush administration plan to increase logging and scale back wildlife protections in the Sierra Nevada.

The lawsuits, filed Tuesday and Monday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, the California capital, are yet another salvo in a nearly 15-year fight over federal management of 11.5 million acres of national forest that run the length of the range.

The Bush administration last year dropped a stringent set of forest protections adopted under President Clinton, saying they prevented the Forest Service from aggressively thinning dense growth that fuels wildfires and from harvesting commercially valuable trees that would help pay for fire-prevention work.

The Bush plan tripled logging levels in the Sierra's 11 national forests, weakened habitat protections for rare species such as the California spotted owl and Pacific fisher, and allowed the felling of trees up to 30 inches in diameter at chest height.

In his lawsuit, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer attacked the rollback as an arbitrary move that lacked scientific or legal justification. "The Bush administration just tossed that plan," Lockyer said, calling the Bush revisions "this new pro-timber company plan."

Lockyer, a Democrat, said he invited Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to join the lawsuit. "We have informed his office, and hope they will wish to participate. We haven't heard back from him."

Although Schwarzenegger defended the Clinton plan during his election campaign and vowed to fight the Bush revisions, since taking office he has been silent on the matter.

Regional Forester Jack Blackwell expressed disappointment in the legal challenges.

"I believe we have got a well-crafted plan," he said. "I'm very comfortable this plan is rooted in the latest science. ... I feel so strongly that we've got to get on with thinning the forest and do all we can to prevent these catastrophic wildfires."

This week's filings bring to three the number of lawsuits seeking to overturn the Bush revisions.

The California Forestry Association, a timber-industry group, challenged them in December for not placing sufficient emphasis on timber production.

Moreover, there may be more administration alterations in the works. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service and set in motion the rollback, is reviewing the new Sierra blueprint and could demand more changes.

In a teleconference jointly arranged by Lockyer and the environmental groups, several forest experts criticized the Forest Service's plan to allow the cutting of larger trees in the Sierra, saying their removal could contribute to the wildfire threat by opening up the timberland, making it drier and hotter.