More than one million acres of undeveloped federal forestland will stay undeveloped, thanks to a long-awaited agreement between conservation groups and the U.S. Forest Service.
Four national forests, including Los Padres, will be the beneficiaries of a settlement between the state of California, the Forest Service, environmental groups, and off-road vehicle users.
The settlement concludes a 2008 federal lawsuit filed by a number of conservation groups that challenged the Forest Service management and development plans for roadless areas in the Angeles, Cleveland, San Bernadino, and Los Padres forests. The groups allege the plans failed to adequately assess cumulative environmental damage caused by road, trail, and other route
construction.
Los Padres Forest stands to benefit most from the settlement, said Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Santa Barbara-based conservation group Los Padres ForestWatch. Roughly 600,000 acres of the land in
question lies in Los Padres.
“A big part of the push for us is having these areas protected,” Kuyper said. “As the community continues to expand further into natural habitat, it’s important to have protected areas like Los Padres, which has large tracts of untouched, pristine habitat.”
Kuyper said Los Padres National Forest covers about a third of Santa Barbara County.
“We’re talking about really looking at how we want this land to be managed 30 years from now,” Kuyper said. “This sets in place a process where the public and land management agencies can sit down and hopefully craft some ideas for the best way to protect our forest land.”
The groups originally appealed the Forest Service’s plans to designate roughly 900,000 acres throughout the four forests for possible road construction and other development. In September 2009, a federal district court sided with the conservationists, ruling that the plans violated the National Environmental Policy Act, and the different parties agreed to negotiate a settlement.
According to Earthjustice attorney Erin Tobin, one of the attorneys representing the environmental groups, the settlement now awaits a final stamp of approval from Federal District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, which is expected in the coming months.
“It certainly was an uphill battle throughout,” Tobin told the Sun. “But getting all these groups together to work on an agreement was a wonderful thing, and I’m certainly excited for what this means for the forests and the endangered species that live there. We all certainly commend the Forest Service for coming to the table.”
Under the agreement, the parties will work together to improve and protect these roadless areas, and the Forest Service will consider protecting several of the areas permanently.
Moreover, the Forest Service will conduct a survey of hundreds of miles of illegal trails used over the years by off-road vehicles and assess the areas’ current condition. Rangers will identify roads and trails degrading the areas, and the Forest Service will prioritize them for restoration.
Petitioning environmental groups included Los Padres ForestWatch, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, the California Native Plant Society, the California Wilderness Coalition, and the Wilderness Society.
According to the suit, the undeveloped land is home to a number of endangered species including steelhead trout, California condors, and the Arroyo toad.
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This article appears in Dec 23-30, 2010.