FOREST SERVICE SLAPPED DOWN

Federal Judge Validates Form Letters

By Bill Schneider, 4-26-06

Back on March 9, I kicked up some dust with a column about the failed public comment process called The Absurdity of “Public Involvement.” A large number of comments on the column generally agreed with the absurdity of the process, bemoaning the far-too-common agency practice of ignoring public comment even when 90 percent or more opposed the preferred alternative.

Now, a federal judge made it all a little less absurd.

In his April 25 summary judgment, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy rejected Bush administration regulations that for three years have shielded Forest Service projects from public scrutiny and appeals. The ruling came out of a lawsuit filed by EarthJustice on behalf of the Wilderness Society, American Wildlands and Pacific Rivers Council.

Molloy issued a nationwide injunction against the regulations. His judgment immediately replaces the illegal rules with the previous rule that governed the FS appeals process before the Bush administration revised it in 2003. This rule considers all public comments significant.

A major impact of the ruling is the validation of form letters. The 2003 Bush administration rule revision declared that public comments must be “substantive” to be considered or give the sender a right to appeal the decision later. In essence, this revised rule gave the FS the right to disregard form letters or e-mails send in by groups opposing proposed actions on public lands such as timber sales.

“It was a closed-door, secret process where the Forest Service was essentially thumbing its nose at the public,” Doug Honnold, an attorney who represented the green groups, was quoted in an article by Tristan Scott in the Missoulian. “We should have an open, democratic process where the Forest Service at least has to listen to the public's suggestions.”

Malloy’s ruling will likely throw the FS’s already out-of-control process of evaluating public comments into a steeper tailspin. Now, the federal agency will actually have to consider comments from people who simply don’t like a project or oppose it on face value but don’t send in specific reasons.

No wonder the revised rule went down in flames. It essentially says people who simply oppose a project don’t matter. But the judge says all people matter, so this will make it hard for the FS to continue ignoring 90 percent of the comments and forging ahead with the agency’s preferred alternative.

“The public's right to be involved in decision-making on national forest projects is a democratic issue,” Honnold said. “The Forest Service should listen to the people who use the national forests and care about them. Whether you're a hunter, hiker or neighboring landowner, the Bush rule could cut you out of the process."

“This is just a classic checks and balances kind of case, where the judicial branch calls out the administration,” added Shawn Regnerus of plaintiff American Wildlands. “This (revised rule) was an attempt by the Bush administration to make it difficult for the average citizen to have a real public role in how our national forests are managed.”

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