ELR Citation: ELR 20045
No(s). 06-35781 (9th Cir. Feb 13, 2007)

The court affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision denying environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin a U.S. Forest Service post-fire logging sale in the Umatilla National Forest. Although the groups may ultimately succeed on the merits of their National Environmental Policy Act claim, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying their motion for injunctive relief when it concluded that the Forest Service adequately analyzed and disclosed the effects of logging in two small uninventoried roadless areas of the forest. The court, however, applied an erroneous legal standard in denying the preliminary injunction on claims that the Forest Service violated the National Forest Management Act (NFMA). The term "live trees" in the applicable forest plan includes all trees that are not dead, including those trees that will likely die within a year. Because the sale included dying trees and not just dead trees, the groups established a very strong likelihood of success on the merits of their NFMA claim. And because the resulting injury—logging of old growth trees—is a permanent environmental injury, the court remanded the case with instructions to grant immediately a preliminary injunction to prohibit the logging of any trees of the requisite size that are not yet dead.