Victory for Protection of our National Forests
On Tuesday, a United States District Court sided with conservation groups and halted Bush-era National Forest planning regulations that were guiding the development of new Land and Resource Management Plans (Forest Plans). This is an important victory for the diverse native species and habitats of the Sky Island region.
The court's decision overturning the 2008 planning rule is a step forward for protection of our National Forests for future generations. It provides an opportunity to reinstate the legacy of protection for our fish, plants, wildlife, natural communities and the important values they provide.
The previous 2005 and 2008 Planning Rules weakened safeguards for wildlife and natural communities, reduced requirements for environmental review, and limited participation of the public in plan development. These rules allowed the Forest Service to establish vague guidelines in the place of enforceable standards.
A vision document is not a strategic plan and should not be a substitute for one. Though Sky Island Alliance was an active participant in this plan revision effort – working with the Coronado Planning Partnership for conservation outcomes - we never felt the 2005 or the 2008 Planning Rules would allow for adequate analysis and planning for conservation-based management because the emphasis of both Planning Rules was to create a vision document, mostly lacking in specific management actions and targets. The lack of specificity in a vision document would have allowed the Forest Service to avoid doing a rigorous analysis of the impacts of their 20 year vision for management, and would have precluded determining whether those impacts would create lasting and irrevocable damage to our public lands.
What are Forest Plans?
Forest Plans are the strategic plans that guide long-term management of our nation's forests and address uses such as recreation, Wilderness suitability, livestock grazing, and timber harvests, while protecting plants and animals. Locally, the Coronado National Forest and other National Forests in Arizona have been engaged in this process of revising their existing Forest Plans under this now-precluded planning rule.
The Coronado NF has been working on revision of the current Forest Plan – which dates to 1986 - since 2006 and has facilitated three rounds of public meetings with the latest in the fall of 2008. The Coronado 's initial 1986 plan was done under the guidance of planning regulations developed by the Forest Service nationally in 1982. The 1982 regulations offered enforceable protection for wildlife, water and the forests, while providing concrete opportunities for public involvement in the planning process.
The current forest plan revision efforts were initiated under the 2005 Planning Rule, which was an update of the previous planning rules, ordered by the Bush Administration. The 2005 rule eliminated requirements that our National Forests be managed to guarantee viable populations of all native and desirable non-native vertebrate fish and wildlife species, and to preserve clean, healthy streams. This planning rule was successfully challenged in court which led to the Forest Service developing the 2008 Planning Rule (with little change from the 2005 Rule), which more current Coronado NF revision efforts have been conducted under.