The federal district court for the Southern District of Indiana granted a motion for a preliminary injunction barring the U.S. Forest Service from implementing the Houston South Vegetation Management and Restoration Project burn in the Hoosier National Forest. The court <a href="https://climatecasechart.com/case/monroe-county-board-of-commissioners-v-us-forest-service/">previously found</a> that the Forest Service violated NEPA by failing to consider the project’s impacts on a lake and remanded for additional analysis. This new lawsuit asserted that the Forest Service violated NEPA by failing to prepare an environmental assessment (EA) or EIS on remand and instead relying on a “supplemental information report” (SIR) to explain why impacts on the lake would not be significant. The new complaint alleged, among other things, that the Forest Service failed to “analyze the fact that the Project itself may contribute to climate change through the emissions associated with logging older trees and repeatedly burning thousands of acres of forest land, which emits greenhouse gases during burns and reduces the long-term ability of trees in the burn areas to store excess carbon once they are burned.” In the order granting the preliminary injunction, the court found that the plaintiffs made a strong showing that the Forest Service acted arbitrarily and capriciously by preparing an SIR instead of an EA or EIS. The court also found that irreparable harm was likely to occur, given the risks posed to the environment and human health and safety, and that the public interest favored an injunction.

Challenge to environmental review of Houston South Vegetation Management and Restoration Project in the Hoosier National Forest; review was conducted on remand from earlier decision of the court.

Monroe County Board of Commissioners v. U.S. Forest Service

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Indiana Federal Court Barred Forest Service from Conducting Burn in Hoosier National Forest

Filed

United States of America

Indiana

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions or measures to adapt terrestrial systems to climate change.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves activities that impart knowledge and skills to individuals, including formal schooling, vocational training and educational support.

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

Activities that relate to the production of goods and services from forests.

This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

Any substance with chemical properties that can cause physical harm to people or damage the environment, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, phosphine, chlorine, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, pesticides, dioxins, microplastics, benzene, asbestos, aflatoxins, fluoride, methanol, and toxins from marine sources.

Indiana Federal Court Barred Forest Service from Conducting Burn in Hoosier National Forest

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance