Flatwoods and George Creek Timber Sales (TN)
Court affirms SELC effort to prevent Forest Service from logging special areas in Tennessee
©SELC
The Forest Service is planning the largest logging project in recent memory in the Cherokee National Forest
In a major win for protecting special areas in the Southern Appalachian mountains, a federal court has ruled the Forest Service acted illegally in pursuing two timber sales in the Cherokee National Forest. The ruling comes in SELC's lawsuit to halt the timber sales - one is the largest in the Cherokee in recent memory, the other would ruin one of the most biologically rich areas in the forest.
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on May 25, 2006 that the Forest Service violated the National Forest Management Act by failing to make the two timber sales consistent with the land-use management plan for the Cherokee, updated in 2004.
SELC is representing the Cherokee Forest Voices in a challenge to Forest Service plans for the Flatwoods timber sale, which would log about 900 acres on Holston Mountain, and the George Creek sale, which would log over 80 acres, mostly by clearcutting, in a relatively pristine and botanically rich watershed just west of Roan Mountain State Park.
The projects were in the pipeline before the agency adopted the updated land-use management plan for the forest in 2004. The new plan provides significant more protection for water quality, recreation and other, non-extractive values. In violation of federal law, the Forest Service failed to make the projects consistent with the new plan and attempted to 'grandfather' the projects.
Earlier in May, at our request, the court issued an injunction against the agency to prevent the George Creek timber sale while the case is being considered. The issue now goes back to the U.S. District Court in Greeneville, Tennessee, which must determine what changes must be made to bring the timber sales in line with the new plan.
