Appeals Court Clears Path for Controversial Pine Mountain Logging Project

Jeffrey pines within the project area. Photo by Bryant Baker.

San Francisco, Calif.—Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to halt a controversial logging and vegetation clearing project atop Pine Mountain and Reyes Peak in Ventura County’s Los Padres National Forest. The ruling comes four years after the Trump Administration first proposed the project, leading to significant opposition from conservation organizations, Indigenous groups, scientists, businesses, local governments, and members of the public who collectively submitted 16,000 comment letters to the Forest Service. 

In 2022, a coalition of community groups—along with the County of Ventura and the City of Ojai—filed lawsuits against the Forest Service on the grounds that the logging and chaparral clearing project would violate environmental laws, harm vulnerable wildlife, and do irreparable damage to intact roadless areas of the forest. They also argued that the project went against a mountain of scientific evidence regarding fire ecology and community wildfire protection. The groups appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year. 

Yesterday’s short, unpublished ruling gives the Forest Service a green light to use heavy equipment to cut and potentially sell trees and grind native chaparral across 755 acres on the top of Pine Mountain. 

“The court’s ruling is a shocking blow, but we’re not deterred in our commitment to do everything we can to protect Pine Mountain,” said Jeff Kuyper, Executive Director of Los Padres ForestWatch. “This project exemplifies the misguided ‘rake-the-forest’ policy that began under the last Trump administration, and will only worsen over the next four years.” 

The project area—equivalent in size to 575 American football fields—is located on ancestral Chumash lands. It is historically and culturally important to Indigenous peoples across the region, popular with locals and tourists for a range of recreational activities, includes designated critical habitat for the endangered California condor, and home to other sensitive wildlife, rare plants, old-growth conifer forests, and unique ecosystems. 

The Forest Service received more comments on this proposal than any other project in the history of the Los Padres. Over 99% of the comments opposed the project. Indigenous groups, ecologists at UCSB, archaeologists, retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife scientists, California Department of Fish & Wildlife biologists, dozens of conservation organizations, and thousands of people in Ventura County and the surrounding region weighed in during the single public comment period in 2020, requesting that major changes be made to the project and/or that the agency prepare a more robust environmental assessment or environmental impact statement before moving forward. Most commenters were concerned about the use of heavy equipment to cut trees up to and larger than two feet in diameter as well as grind native shrubs into mulch. The Forest Service refused to address these concerns and declined to make any meaningful changes to the project when approving it in 2021.  

“We are saddened to see that the Forest Service can proceed with logging this pristine and sacred part of the national forest after shortcutting the environmental review process. This case underscores the need to hold the government accountable to robust analysis going forward—especially in the next four years,” said Maggie Hall, Deputy Chief Counsel at the Environmental Defense Center. 

“One can hardly conceive of a lower-priority project that is so broadly unwanted as this,” said Peter Deneen, the chief executive of Keep the Sespe Wild. “Leaders at every level of government and society have unanimously said this plan needs further review. Not only would this work impact the headwaters of federally-protected Sespe Creek, more than one third of the project is within a protected roadless area that has never been logged or degraded and is on the verge of being annexed into the Sespe Wilderness.” 

The groups argued that the project violated the National Environmental Policy Act by improperly invoking loopholes and sidestepping a long list of environmental and cultural concerns. They also argued that the project violated the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and took aim at the Forest Service’s failure to collaborate with stakeholders.  

“We had hoped the court would rule in favor of the planet, biodiversity and the community,” said Hans Cole, head of Environmental Activism at Patagonia. “We’re disappointed, but the work to protect Pine Mountain will continue. Pine Mountain is 90 minutes from our headquarters in Ventura and the area is important to our employees and customers because of its outdoor recreation opportunities, including rock climbing, hiking and camping. We’ll keep advocating for more conservation of Los Padres National Forest, and we’ll keep urging the federal government to protect mature and old-growth trees.” 

Plaintiffs are Los Padres ForestWatch, Keep Sespe Wild Committee, Earth Island Institute, and American Alpine Club, collectively represented by the Environmental Defense Center; and the Center for Biological Diversity, California Chaparral Institute, and Patagonia Works, represented by the Center for Biological Diversity. 

The groups are considering next steps, including whether to seek a rehearing on the matter. Implementation of the project can begin in the coming months, once the Forest Service secures funding and hires a contractor to complete the work.