Forest Service Delays Ended

The Boy Scouts can return to the woods. So can mushroom hunters and firewood gatherers after a federal judge this week told the U.S. Forest Service that it had gone overboard in interpreting a court ruling.

The Forest Service in late September delayed numerous minor forest activities, contending that a July court order had forced it to go through a 135-day public review process before it could approve such routine projects as trail-clearing by volunteer groups or cutting the national Christmas tree in New Mexico.

A nationwide furor erupted as nearly 1,500 small projects were slowed. Democratic congressmen complained that the Bush administration was using the case as a political ploy. Off-road groups blamed it on “radical environmentalists” who had filed the suit that led to the court ruling. And the Forest Service said its field staff was facing disruption and confusion.

Late Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge James Singleton Jr. cleared up the issue, saying the Forest Service had applied much too broadly a ruling aimed at such projects as small-scale logging and the construction of off-road vehicle routes. “The Forest Service need not suspend actions” such as permitting outfitters or gathering forest products for personal use, Singleton wrote for the Eastern District of California.

Environmentalists said they had been vindicated.

“There’s no doubt that” the Forest Service “intentionally tried to create this false crisis in order to create a backlash against the court decision,” said Matt Kenna, a Western Environmental Law Center attorney who is helping argue the case.

Forest Service headquarters declined to comment, deferring to a statement issued by U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the agency.

“We are relieved that Judge Singleton provided a necessary clarification to his earlier orders to make it clear that a limited number of truly inconsequential activities on national forests and grasslands are unaffected.”

But Rey said the government would continue to appeal the decision because it applied to other time-sensitive activities such as small tree-thinning projects aimed at reducing the wildfire threat.

The case involves a 2003 rule issued by the Forest Service that exempted certain types of small projects, including timber sales of up to 250 acres and thinning projects of up to 1,000 acres, from public comment and appeal. Environmental groups sued, contending that the exemptions violated the law. In July, Singleton agreed, throwing out the 2003 rule.

Last month, the Forest Service started suspending a whole range of minor activities it routinely permitted, saying that they would have to go through a public comment and appeals process that could take months to complete. The judge said Wednesday that he had intended the agency to reinstate old rules that exempted such activities from public-review requirements.

The suspensions had created havoc for groups used to popping into their neighborhood ranger office to get a permit to forage in the woods or renew an outfitter-guide permit. In Santa Barbara, organizers of a popular charity hike scheduled for Saturday were bewildered this week by the Forest Service’s initial refusal to allow several hundred hikers access to the Los Padres National Forest

For five years, the group has sponsored a forest hike called the Summit for Danny, a tribute to Danny Bryant, a young man who died from a heroin overdose in 1995. The walks have raised more than $750,000 for a variety of therapeutic programs.

Never -- until now -- had there been a problem with securing a Forest Service permit for the event. But because of the new requirement to post a 30-day public notice, organizers were scrambling this week to find trails on land outside Forest Service jurisdiction.

Even a protest to the Forest Service from Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) appeared to be futile. Thursday, Bryant’s father, jeweler Bob Bryant, said that although some of the trails Saturday may not be the ones originally selected, all the publicity could lead to a record-breaking turnout for the cause he founded.

“The Lord works in mysterious ways,” he said.