Standing Trees, Inc. v. U.S. Forest Service

A New England-focused environmental organization filed a lawsuit in federal district in New Hampshire challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s Sandwich Vegetation Management Project, which the organization alleged would allow 638 acres of commercial timber harvest in “predominantly mature and old forest” in the White Mountain National Forest, as well as prescribed burns on 306 acres, road reconstruction and alteration, and construction or reconstruction of log landings. The complaint alleged that the Forest Service failed to conduct the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act, including by failing to quantify the project’s carbon emissions or the impact of logging on carbon storage and instead relying “on vague comparisons to national and global emissions.” The plaintiff contended that the Forest Service did not use best available science and that the agency dismissed comments that made “a substantial showing that carbon sequestration increases as forests age, and old forests store more carbon than young forests.” Other climate change-related allegations included contentions that the Forest Service ignored cumulative effects of similar actions in the White Mountain National Forest, including cumulative impacts to climate. The complaint also asserted that the Forest Service violated the National Forest Management Act.