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Decision on timber sale reversed

Responding to an appeal from environmental groups, forest managers have reversed their decision on a plan to log on 26,000 acres on the North Kaibab Ranger District.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club appealed a Feb. 5 Finding of No Significant Impact on the Jacob Ryan Vegetation Management Project. They raised six contentions related to compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and six related to compliance with the Kaibab National Forest's goshawk management program.

In a letter announcing the reversal, Appeal Reviewing Officer David Mertz wrote that the record didn't clearly outline the rationale for choosing the alternative allowing removal of trees up to 18 inches diameter, as opposed to 12 inches and that the decision process didn't comply with forest policy or plans or 1996 goshawk requirements. He also wrote that the process didn't adequately assess cumulative effects, and especially did not take into account plans for nearby salvage operations on 9,000 acres of the 59,000 burned by Warm Fire in the summer of 2006. The groups are appealing this project as well.

Responding to other claims, the review maintained that comments and scientific data were properly addressed and considered, that effects on sensitive species such as the goshawk and Kaibab squirrel were properly considered and that an environmental assessment and not a more rigorous environmental impact study was appropriate.

According to the letter, if the project is to go forward, it must undergo a new analysis of cumulative effects and go back through the comment process. The environmental groups involved in the appeal did support cutting trees 12 inches in diameter and under and re-introducing a fire regime to the landscape.

The project was first proposed on 33,000 acres in 1998, but was scaled back in both size and scope.

Forest plans require managers to maintain an old-growth habitat for the benefit of goshawks, which are an indicator species - the health of their population provides an overview of the overall health of the ecosystem. The Kaibab Plateau has the largest breeding population in the continental United States.

"This is a victory for wildlife and old-growth at the gateway to Grand Canyon National Park," said Jay Lininger, an ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "But there remains a need to safely restore natural fire to the forests at Jacob Ryan."


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