Environmental groups sue the U.S. Forest Service lawsuit over ‘timber targets’ shown to escalate the climate crisis.
ASHEVILLE – A new U.S. Forest Service lawsuit alleges that the practice of setting annual “timber targets” puts the climate at risk, undermines the Biden administration’s climate goals, and violates federal law. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) on behalf of two conservation groups and an individual plaintiff.
The crux of the U.S. Forest Service lawsuit centers on the Forest Service’s failure to properly study the massive environmental and climate impacts of these timber targets and the logging projects designed to meet them. Each year, the agency and the Department of Agriculture set high targets, recently as high as 4 billion board feet of timber – enough lumber to circle the globe more than 30 times.
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These mandated targets create perverse incentives for the Forest Service to clearcut forests and log carbon-dense mature and old-growth trees on public lands, despite their importance for carbon capture and storage. Logging releases most of the forests’ stored carbon back into the atmosphere, exacerbating climate change and contradicting the Biden administration’s climate initiatives.
“Our national forests offer a straightforward climate solution by capturing and storing carbon,” said Patrick Hunter, SELC’s managing attorney in Asheville. “But these areas are routinely logged to achieve timber targets, threatening our forests’ value and violating federal law.”
Internal documents show achieving timber volumes is the agency’s “#1 priority,” impacting other core responsibilities like trail maintenance and wildfire prevention. According to the lawsuit, funds intended for wildlife habitat have allegedly been diverted to timber projects providing “no benefit to wildlife.”
“The Forest Service should lead the climate fight, not release millions of tons of carbon while degrading our forests as climate solutions,” said Nicole Hayler, Executive Director of the Chattooga Conservancy.
The U.S. Forest Service lawsuit alleges the agency has never assessed or disclosed the considerable climate impacts of its timber target decisions, violating the National Environmental Policy Act’s requirements.
“If timber targets take priority over other forest benefits, the consequences must be disclosed, especially regarding climate,” said Josh Kelly of MountainTrue. “The agency can’t ignore impacts on water, recreation, wildlife and climate crisis.”
In the U.S. Forest Service lawsuit, SELC argues that the Forest Service must take a “hard look” at the direct, indirect, and cumulative effects of pursuing high timber targets that prioritize logging over environmental protection on public lands.
