Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center v. Grantham

Three environmental groups filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Eastern District of California challenging a U.S. Forest Service plan to reduce risks of wildfire in the Johnny O’Neil Late-Successional Old Growth Forest Reserve. The plaintiffs alleged that the project included clear-cut logging of old forests affected by wildfire, which the plaintiffs said would “increase the future risk of wildfire and compromise ecological integrity of the recovering forest.” The complaint stated that the causes of the increase in wildfires in California and other western states “are complex and include global climate change and past forest management” and that “how forests are managed after wildfire can dictate how forests function in the future: the best available science indicates that future wildfires are made worse by extensive logging that removes all of the largest fire-affected trees from an area.” The plaintiffs asserted violations of the National Forest Management Act, NEPA, and the Administrative Procedure Act.