Heartwood and Kentucky Heartwood Argue Illegal Daniel Boone National Forest Plan in Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
On October 21, 2010, Kentucky Heartwood and Heartwood argued before the federal appeals court in Cincinnati that the Forest Service had violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act in developing its management plan for the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky,
Our lawsuit, argued by Lexington Attorney, Joe Childers, charged that the Forest Service had grossly misrepresented public input during the planning process and had failed to analyze the impacts of widespread herbicide use.
Kentucky Heartwood has participated in every aspect of the lengthy forest planning process for the last decade and a half and had helped develop two citizen’s alternatives for the plan. Despite support from 93% of the people who commented on the plan, these alternatives were not even considered in the planning process. These alternatives called for active management to increase large forest blocks, close roads, remediate erosion, increase the number and size of wilderness areas and address recreation as reasons to end commercial logging in the Daniel Boone. The agency dismissed widespread calls for an end to commercial logging by stating that “no management” was not a reasonable option for the forest, revealing the agency’s institutional bias towards commercial logging.
A ruling is expected sometime in the first half of 2011.