A lawsuit filed in federal district court in the District of Columbia challenged the U.S. Forest Service’s alleged failure to account for the aggregate carbon effects of actions taken each year to fulfill annual “timber targets,” which the plaintiffs described as “mandatory performance metrics” that “drive logging levels on the National Forest System.” The plaintiffs—two environmental groups and a resident of Missouri—alleged that the failure to consider the impacts of national, regional, and unit-specific timber targets violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). They also alleged that project-level analyses for projects in Sumter National Forest, Nantahala National Forest, and Mark Twain National Forest violated NEPA and asked the court to enjoin the Forest Service from proceeding with the remaining commercial timber-harvest portions of these projects until it complies with NEPA. They also requested that the court enjoin the Forest Service from offering additional timber sales to fulfill fiscal year 2024 timber targets for Regions 8 and 9. The complaint alleged that failure to consider cumulative carbon emissions disproportionately affects forests in the East and the South because the volumetric timber targets incentivized logging in the most carbon-dense forests.

Challenge to the U.S. Forest Service’s alleged failure to account for the aggregate carbon effects of actions taken each year to fulfill annual “timber targets." 

Chattooga Conservancy v. U.S. Department of Agriculture

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Lawsuit Said Forest Service Violated NEPA by Failing to Consider Annual “Timber Targets” Impact on Carbon Storage

Filed

United States of America

District of Columbia

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Lawsuit Said Forest Service Violated NEPA by Failing to Consider Annual “Timber Targets” Impact on Carbon Storage

Target

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance