National Forest Management Act of 1976 - Legal Battles

Legal Battles

NFMA has spawned law suits regarding the degree of involvement required by both the forest service and the public.

Ohio Forestry Association v. Sierra Club

The Sierra Club claimed that the logging practices allowed in the Wayne National Forest in Southeast Ohio were unlawful under NFMA because the Act requires ongoing input and management from the Forest Service. The Court rejected the claims of the Sierra Club and stated the Forest Service is not an agency required to perform ongoing action or involvement in the forest plans.

Sierra Club v. Marita, 1995

The Forest Service issued two land and resource management plans for national forests in Wisconsin that both involved ltimber harvest. To monitor ecosystem health, the Forest Service chose a handful of management indicator species as proxies, but the Sierra Club argued that a mosaic-like logging of the national forests would not provide the wildlife corridor necessary to ensure appropriate biodiversity of those species or any others. The Sierra Club attacked the Forest Service’s science behind their L/RMP, calling it “junk science”. Ultimately, the court ruled in favor of agency discretion despite finding that the Forest Service used questionable science, though not to the degree that their decision could be considered arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).