Healthy Forests Initiative - Litigation

Litigation

In 2004, the Sierra Club and Sierra Forest Legacy (formerly named Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign) brought a lawsuit challenging one aspect of HFI. The National Environmental Policy Act requires preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) for agency actions. Under HFI, the Forest Service had promulgated a "categorical exclusion" that eliminated the EIS requirement for timber sales up to 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) and prescribed burns up to 4,500 acres (18 km2). On December 5, 2007, in Sierra Club v. Bosworth, the Ninth Circuit held that the Forest Service's promulgation of the categorical exclusion "was arbitrary and capricious".