USFS Withdraws Plan To Allow Logging In Sequoia National Monument

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Forest Service withdrew a fire protection plan for Sequoia National Forest that allowed commercial logging, nearly a year after a judge ruled the blueprint violated federal law.

The Forest Service notified a federal court Tuesday it had withdrawn its strategy for responding to lightning fires in the 328,000-acre Central California forest, which includes Giant Sequoia National Monument. The Forest Service said it would not issue a new fire-control plan, but stressed it would still protect forests.

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The plan, first issued in 2002, allowed commercial logging in the monument. The Forest Service said the thinning of smaller trees was needed to protect the 38 sequoia groves. The attorney general accused the agency of designing a plan that benefited timber companies while putting forests and surrounding communities at risk.

The Forest Service argued it didn’t need to conduct an environmental review because the plan was compiled from other documents that already provided such assessments. In July, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer sided with Lockyer and ordered the agency to revise the plan.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13204849/

that used a phony picture of a forest in Montana to try to bolster its case?