Conservation Groups sue U.S. Forest Service over controversial Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan

On Thursday, a coalition of conservation groups sued the U.S. Forest Service over its Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan, arguing the agency violated federal law by downplaying the harmful impacts of a dramatic expansion in logging and by failing to include binding standards to restore important native ecosystems.

The plan guides the long-term future of North Carolina’s Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests, which are among the most visited and most beloved public lands in the country. The Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan outlines where activities like logging and roadbuilding will occur and sets objectives for future timber harvests. The plan will determine what happens on these forests for a generation.

"A forest plan that sacrifices the needs of imperiled wildlife while accelerating logging without appropriate sideboards is no forest plan at all," said Ben Prater, Southeast Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife. "Instead of supporting rare species like forest bats, fish, mussels and amphibians, this plan ramps up logging justified by faulty assumptions that are even more precarious in the wake of Hurricane Helene. This plan was built on the assumption that natural disturbances would create less than 200 acres of open and young forest habitat a year. By that metric, Helene caused 400 years' worth of disturbance to some of the most important habitats in the region in a matter of days. The plan was already flawed, and now it is completely out of step with the realities on the ground." 

The Forest Service was handed a collaboratively developed Forest Plan proposal that allowed for logging while minimizing harmful impacts. However, the agency rejected the compromise out of hand in favor of a plan that aims to quintuple the amount of logging in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests and expand logging and roadbuilding into sensitive habitats. More than 23,000 people commented to oppose the plan which will degrade important ecosystems, imperil rare species, make our forests less resilient, and hurt local economies that depend on recreation and tourism within the forests.

These flaws were magnified by Hurricane Helene, which not only wreaked havoc on western North Carolina communities but also decimated forests. The Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan did not anticipate the level of damage brought by this kind of climate-change-fueled storm, instead justifying high levels of logging by arguing that there is not enough disturbance from storms and fire. Logging healthy forests at the high levels called for in the plan — levels the agency has refused to adjust in the wake of Helene — will compound the harm to these landscapes.  

“Ever since the Forest Service published the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan, we have given the agency every possible opportunity to do the right thing and fix this flawed plan. But the Forest Service has refused,” Sam Evans, Leader of the Southern Environmental Law Center’s National Forests and Parks Program, said. “We simply can’t stand by and ignore the significant and long-lasting harm this plan will do to these remarkable forests and the communities that rely on them.”

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, MountainTrue, and Sierra Club. The case was filed in United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

“The Forest Service’s final plan for the Nantahala-Pisgah was a major step backward. It opened up old-growth forests, rare species habitat, and remote backcountry to commercial logging while failing to address critical needs like road maintenance, trail infrastructure, and monitoring. Logging can play a valuable role in our region, but this plan sacrificed balance in favor of conflict. That’s why we’ve had to make the difficult decision to challenge the Forest Service in court,” Josh Kelly, Resilient Forests Director for MountainTrue, said.  

"This disastrous plan broke the law and the hearts of millions of forest visitors," said Will Harlan, Southeast Director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The most popular and biodiverse national forest in the country should not be targeted for massive increases in clearcuts, especially after Helene. The hurricane did plenty of logging. We don’t need five times more."

"Our national forests are reeling from massive storm destruction, yet they're still subject to a management plan that includes unrealistic timber targets. Failing to change the plan would create additional threats to the natural beauty treasured by millions of visitors and the environmental health required for the survival of many rare and endangered species," said David Reid, National Forests Issue Chair for the Sierra Club's North Carolina Chapter. "We can't wait any longer for the U.S. Forest Service to take the initiative to correct its plan to achieve the balance necessary to protect these remarkable lands."