Federal court halts timber sale in Uintas

A federal court has halted a large timber sale in Utah's Uinta Mountains, prompting environmental groups to claim victory.

The Trout Slope West timber sale would harvest trees on 18,500 acres of land in the Vernal Ranger District, Ashley National Forest. Although it stops the sale for now, the ruling remands the matter for reconsideration, leaving the possibility that the sale takes place later.

A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, Denver, reversed part of an earlier decision by a U.S. District Court judge. It also affirms the earlier decision in part.

The new ruling notes that the project results from a beetle infestation in the 1980s that left many trees dead. "The project was designed to clear out these dead or fallen trees, recover their economic value, and improve habitat within the project area," the judges wrote.

"The project includes a number of mitigation measures to protect the watersheds from increased runoff and erosion resulting from the trees' removal."

But the ruling agreed with the plaintiffs — the Utah Environmental Congress and the High Uintas Preservation Council — in finding the Forest Service did not document that it used the best available science in monitoring cutthroat trout or water quality.

Concerning old-growth trees, the judges added, "the Forest Service appears to have complied with the forest plan standards for maintaining old-growth trees."

The court wrote that, as the Forest Service had noted, the National Environmental Policy Act "does not prohibit approval of projects with negative cumulative effects; it only requires that the Forest Service consider and disclose such effects."

The agency pointed to numerous places in the administrative record showing that it did a cumulative effect analysis.

"Specifically, the Forest Service used two computer models to calculate the amount of expected runoff resulting from the project and the effect on stream channels. Both models showed that the impact of the project, when considered with previous actions taken in the project area, would be minimal."

But the Utah Environmental Congress and the High Uintas Preservation Council simply disagreed with the Forest Service's conclusions, the court wrote. Such disagreement is not sufficient to overturn the sale, the judged added.