The U.S. Forest Service has been ordered by a federal judge to cease a roadside clearing project in Los Padres National Forest in California because it did not consider the effects of the work on endangered species, as required by law.

 

Judge Lucy Koh granted a preliminary injunction after an environmental group, Los Padres Forestwatch, filed a lawsuit to stop the $1.1 million project targeting vegetation alongside 750 miles of forest roads. The Forest Service was faulted for not seeking input from the public or other government agencies, and it was noted that its own biologists had warned the work could impact 26 threatened and endangered species, including the Smith’s blue butterfly and seacliff buckwheat.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Judge Protects Forest from Forest Service (by Sonya Angelica Diehn, Courthouse News Service)

Los Padres Forestwatch v. U.S. Forest Service (U.S. District Court, Northern California) (pdf)