Victories

Giant Sequoia National Monument Logging Plan Stopped Pending Further Study

In Brief: New management plan must be developed

Giant sequoias are the largest trees on the planet.

Photo: pdphoto.org

In August 2006, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer found that the U. S. Forest Service had "trampled the applicable environmental laws" when it approved a plan to allow commercial logging in the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Judge Breyer also called the government's plan "decidedly incomprehensible" and determined that it "lacks coherent or clear guidance" about how to protect the Monument's magnificent sequoia groves and rare wildlife.

In addition, Judge Breyer barred further logging on four tracts in and near the Monument, pending further study of how the logging would affect the habitat of the Pacific fisher, an endangered member of the weasel family which thrives in old-growth habitat.

Giant Sequoia National Monument is home to at least half of the world's giant sequoias, the largest trees on Earth.

Earthjustice filed suit on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign and the Center for Biological Diversity, with the Sierra Club and John Muir Project as co-counsel. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a similar federal court challenge.

Updated: August 24, 2006