Media Release Californians for Alternatives to Toxics PO Box 1195 (990 I Street),Arcata, CA 95518 707-445-5100 cats@alternatives2toxics.org http://www.alternatives2toxics.org Wednesday June 13, 2001 Contact: Patty Clary, Executive Director, Californians for Alternatives to Toxics (CATs) 707-445-5100 Judge to Forest Service: Quincy Library Group forest project will be shut down if a new environmental study fails to address maintenance and herbicide use Sacramento, CA Federal judge Lawrence K. Karlton ruled late Tuesday that he will halt work on a controversial fire reduction project mandated by Congress if the U.S. Forest Service continues to ignore the environmental impacts of maintenance and the use of herbicides. An environmental impact statement prepared by the U.S. Forest Service to implement the Quincy Library Group Forest Protection Act unlawfully ignores how maintenance will be conducted on 320,000 acres of fuel breaks, Karlton ruled, and “amounts to an abuse of discretion.” A revised EIS that complies with his order must be published for public comment within four months or work on the project will stop, the judge ruled. Californians for Alternatives to Toxics (CATs) sued the Forest Service for not factoring into its plan the impact of brush and grasses that will regrow in cleared fuel breaks and maintenance that may involve herbicides to prevent fire risk and harm to firefighters. “The Forest Service is radically altering vegetation on 320,000 acres of forest without knowing what the ultimate result is going to be,” said Patty Clary, director of CATs. “The bottom line is that the Forest Service thumbed its nose at the biological imperative and an interested public that was trying to bring scientific evidence to its attention.” Judge Karlton found that the “hard look” at the environmental results of Forest Service actions that is required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was not done in the existing EIS. “These actions may lead to Forest Service proposals for using herbicides on thousands of acres each year,” said Clary. “The court’s ruling means that the Forest Service must address these significant impacts so that Congress and the public can be able to revise the plan if necessary to avoid environmentally destructive actions.” Though maintenance was not addressed specifically in the Quincy Act, the Forest Service was directed to conduct a study of the environmental effects of the fire break plan as required under NEPA. The Quincy Act mandates the construction of a network of fuel breaks by removing trees and shrubs on areas of the forest 1/4 to 1/2 miles wide and several miles long on 40,000 to 60,000 acres per year for five years. The network will ultimately cover one-quarter of the land base of the Plumas and Lassen national forests and the Sierraville District of the Tahoe National Forest. The project mandated by the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Forest Protection Act -- which was blocked by California’s Senator Boxer then passed as a rider to an appropriations bill in 1998 -- is based on a forest management plan developed by a self-appointed group of residents and timber companies who met at the library in the remote town of Quincy. Athough the interests of many northern Californians were not represented during development of the plan, its proponents tout it as showcasing cutting-edge policy in which local views determine projects on public lands. Californians for Alternatives to Toxics is based in Arcata, CA has served for two decades as a clearinghouse for information and strategic action about pesticide use in the northern California region. CATs works to change systems that involve the use of toxic pesticides and has opposed the herbicide spraying on national forests in California since the organization’s inception. For more information about CATs, see http://www.alternatives2toxics.org or call 707-445-5100.