On Friday, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center filed a complaint against Mary Erickson in her official capacity as the Forest Supervisor of the Custer Gallatin National Forest and the United States Forest Services in the District of Montana alleging they violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
According to the complaint, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center is a conservation organization dedicated to protecting the people, forests, water and wildlife in the western United States. The plaintiff states that its members have aesthetic, recreational, spiritual, scientific and conservation interests in the Custer Gallatin National Forest. The Cottonwood Environmental Law Center states that this case challenges Custer Gallatin National Forest’s failure to protect the public from climate change.
The complaint states that the defendants implemented the 2022 Revised Custer Gallatin Forest Plan and, as part of it, started logging three-year-old growth timber sales at three separate sites within the forest. The plaintiff argues that the implementation of the Revised Forest Plan and the logging of timber is in violation of the NEPA because the defendants failed to disclose and analyze contradictory science during its required NEPA analysis for the Revised Forest Plan.
Specifically, the plaintiff argues that the defendants did not analyze and disclose a 2017 article from the National Academy of Sciences that states “when thinning is combined with the expected warming, unintended consequences may ensue, whereby regeneration is compromised and forested areas convert to nonforest.” According to the complaint, on June 9, 2020, Cottonwood provided Mary Ericksonwith a copy of the article giving the defendants adequate notice.
Cottonwood argues that this article shows that the logging of growth timber as part of the Revised Forest Plan is in direct contradiction of the Environmental Impact Statement for the 2022 Custer Gallatin Forest Plan. The plaintiff purports this contradiction arises because a “key assumption of the Environmental Impact Statement “is that the forestland will not be converted to a non-forest condition after harvesting and will remain productive.”
Consequently, the plaintiff alleges that the defendants violated NEPA by failing to take a hard look at the impacts of the Revised 2022 Custer Gallatin Forest Plan and its implementation. For this alleged violation Cottonwood requests that the court declare that the Forest Service violated the law, partially vacate portions of the 2022 Revised Forest Plan, vacate and enjoin the three old growth timber sales and grant attorney’s fees and costs.
