Second suit filed over forest plan

Published on October 25, 2002
© 2002- The Press Democrat

BYLINE:    Ucilia Wang
PAGE: B3
COLUMN: Around the Empire

An environmental group that forced the state to revise its management plan for the Jackson State Demonstration Forest filed a second lawsuit Thursday contending that the new plan is inadequate.

The suit, filed in Mendocino County Superior Court by the Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood Forest, charges that the California Department of Forestry failed to fully analyze the environmental impact of its proposed management plan.

On Nov. 5, the state Board of Forestry is scheduled to consider the plan, which was drafted after the same enviromental group sued CDF in 2000 for failing to update its 1983 plan.

That suit was settled in March when CDF agreed to halt logging in the forest until a new plan is in place.

The ultimate goal of the Jackson Forest campaign is to eliminate commercial logging in the forest, said the group's spokesman, Vince Taylor. He said logging has destroyed the beauty of the 50,000-acre forest in the coastal hills east of Mendocino.CDF officials said that the state's goal is to log the forest to study the impact on the environment and improve timber harvesting practices.