After lawsuit, Forest Service starts over on plan to reopen forest burned in Labor Day Fires
The U.S. Forest Service said Wednesday it would essentially start over the process to reopen around 170,000 acres burned in the 2020 Labor Day Fires east of Eugene and Salem after lawsuits halted the plan last fall.
The move throws into question when access will be restored to places such as Opal Creek, the Breitenbush area and the northern Mount Jefferson Wilderness.
A federal judge in November blocked a plan by Willamette National Forest to log hazard trees along 400 miles of road within the scars of the Holiday Farm, Beachie Creek and Lionshead fires.
The Forest Service said at the time that the plan was critical to making roadways safe and reopening public access to vast swaths of public land burned in the 2020 Labor Day Fires.
Environmental groups, who brought the lawsuit, said the federal agency was being too aggressive in removing trees along roadsides.
Instead of going through the lawsuit process, Willamette National Forest supervisor Dave Warnack said he would scrap the old plan and restart the process.
“I have decided it is in the best interest of the public to limit the continued time and expense associated with ongoing litigation surrounding this project,” Warnack said in a statement. “Our work to safely restore public access to areas burned in the 2020 Labor Day fires continues to be top priority.
"Upon withdrawal of this decision, my staff will conduct another review of the purpose and need of this project and will consider a new approach to addressing this important issue. We will re-engage with community partners and other interested parties toward solutions and opportunities to facilitate safely reopening fire affected areas.”
Warnack did not address how much longer this new review might take, or offer any possibility of opening the forest in some capacity, saying only that "these areas will remain closed to the public until safety concerns are addressed," in an email.
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The lawsuits were filed by Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, Willamette Riverkeeper and Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.
Nick Cady, legal director for Cascadia Wildlands, said he was shocked by the Forest Service decision since the judge's ruling specifically allowed logging any "imminent danger trees along roads," he said.
“Had the Forest Service not tried to squeeze a huge public lands timber grab into a narrow exemption from environmental review, the agency could have long since removed any danger trees and reopened the forests to the public," he said in an email. "The Court’s injunction — at our request — specifically allowed for danger tree removal, any spin from the agency to the contrary is just plain false.”
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Forest Service starts over on plan to reopen forest burned in 2020 fires
