Black Crater Post-fire Timber Sale
The Black Crater fire started near the eastern border of the Three Sisters Wilderness on July 24, 2006 and burned a total of 9,407 acres. The Deschutes National Forest responded with the “Black Crater Fire Timber Salvage Project,” a proposal to log all but six dead trees (“snags”) per acre across over 200 acres of the burned landscape. The entire logging project was within an old-growth reserve and designated “Critical Habitat” for the spotted owl. The final authorization for the project came from the Forest Service on February 8, 2007 without any analysis of the project’s environmental impacts.
The Cascadia Wildlands Project challenged the Black Crater project with co-plaintiffs Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project and the Sierra Club. Plaintiffs were represented by the Cascadia Wildlands Project’s Dan Kruse and by the Crag Law Office’s Ralph Bloemers. The claims raised were: (1) that the removal of “likely to persist” snags from an old-growth reserve violated the National Forest Management Act, (2) that logging in an old-growth reserve for strictly economic purposes violated the National Forest Management Act, (3) that the Forest Service’s failure to ensure the scientific integrity of the project’s planning documents violated the National Environmental Policy Act, and (4) that the Forest Service’s failure to consider the environmental impacts of the project in an Environmental Assessment violated the National Environmental Policy Act.
Plaintiffs were granted a Temporary Restraining Order against the Black Crater project in June of 2007. Settlement negotiations ensued between the parties, and an agreement was ultimately reached when the Forest Service agreed to drop seven of the eight logging units. The Settlement Agreement was finalized and accepted by the court in October of 2007.
Legal documents include:
1. Complaint
2. TRO/PI Motion
3. TRO/PI Memo
4. TRO Order
5. Defendants’ Response to PI Motion
6. Plaintiffs’ Reply to Defendants’ Response to PI Motion
7. Plaintiffs’ Motion to Strike
8. Plaintiffs’ Response to Defendants’ Motion for Extension of Time
9. Declaration of Joshua Laughlin
10. Declaration of Asante Riverwind
11. Declaration of Marilyn Miller
12. Declaration of Craig Miller
13. Declaration of Monica Bond
14. Declaration of Daniel Kruse
15. Settlement Agreement and Stipulation
16. Dismissal
