FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2005

Contact:
Matt Kenna, Western Environmental Law Center, (970) 385-6941
Mary Conley, Western Environmental Law Center, (541) 485-2471
Annie Strickler, Sierra Club, (202) 675-2384
Jim Bensman, Heartwood, (618) 463-0714

    Court Tells Forest Service to Obey the Law, Protect Public’s Rights
Judge Clarifies Ruling that Agency Used to Halt Projects Nationwide, Create
                                 Backlash

(Fresno, CA) -- U.S. District Court Judge James K. Singleton, Jr., issued
an order late yesterday that vindicated conservation groups' efforts to
keep the public involved in Forest Service decisions that affect America’s
National Forests. In a motion to clarify, the judge found that, by
over-applying his previous decision and blocking normal public use such as
firewood gathering, the Bush administration was improperly implementing the
Court's previous orders. The agency’s overreaction ignored legal precedent
and sought to create a public backlash against the Court's decision and
conservation groups’ claims that the public has a right to be involved in
government actions.

"The judge acted on behalf of the public in both protecting their rights to
be heard on Forest Service decisions as well as in explaining that the
agency was over-reaching. Small business owners and lots of people who use
public lands were being hurt by the agency’s strategy of over-reacting to
make a political point," said Matt Kenna of the Western Environmental Law
Center, representing the plaintiff conservation groups which include
Heartwood, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and Earth Island
Insititute.

The Court said that the Forest Service must implement prior regulations
which required public comment and appeal on potentially harmful activities
such as timber sales, oil and gas development, and creation of new
motorized trail routes. The ruling came just as national conservation
groups, as well as members of the Senate and Congress, had expressed their
dismay at the Forest Service’s politically motivated move.

"The judge called a spade a spade and made clear that the Bush
administration was playing political games and Americans were paying the
price," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director. "What the
administration did in this case was part of a larger pattern of both
limiting public participation and placing blame on conservation groups."

"This is the second time the judge sided with conservationists and the
American people and rejected the administration’s attempts to write the
public out of decisions regarding their National Forests," said Jim Bensman
of Heartwood. "There is a difference between simple and controversial
activities, between mushroom gathering and 250-acre timber sales,
distinctions which the judge has again required the Forest Service to
recognize."



The Western Environmental Law Center is a nonprofit public interest law
firm that works to protect and restore Western wildlands and to advocate
for the right of Western communities to a clean and healthy environment.

The Sierra Club’s members are more than 750,000 of your friends and
neighbors. Inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities
and the planet. The Club is America’s oldest, largest, and most influential
grassroots environmental organization.

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