A key part of the Bush administration’s “Healthy Forests” law, passed in 2003,
was effectively struck down this week by a federal appeals court. The
“hazardous fuels reduction” rule let the U.S. Forest Service get out of
analyzing the environmental impacts of timber sales up to 1,000 acres
in size and prescribed burns up to 4,500 acres — at least until after
the sales and burns had already happened. The judges ordered a lower
court to issue an injunction halting fuel-reduction projects under the
law that were filed after October 2004 when the Sierra Club and Sierra
Forest Legacy filed the lawsuit. The appeals court also ruled that the
Forest Service caused “irreparable injury” by not appropriately
studying the cumulative environmental impacts of logging and/or burning
more than 1.2 million acres of national forest lands each year.
sources:
straight to the ruling:
Sierra Club v. Bosworth [PDF]