Appellate court sides with USFS regarding Angora project

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 20 unanimously upheld a U.S. District Court ruling saying the U.S. Forest Service’s environmental analysis for the Angora Restoration Project was valid.

The John Muir Project had found flaws with the project because it encroached into habitat for the black-backed woodpecker. The environmental group, which is a subsidiary of the Earth Island Institute, filed a lawsuit to stop the logging-restoration efforts.

This species of bird likes to live in burn areas. The Forest Service is owner of most of the nearly 3,100 acres that burned in the 2007 Angora Fire on the South Shore.

In early June the Forest Service agreed to move its logging operations away from the nests. Since then the mechanical and hand thinning of trees on approximately 1,441 acres in the burn area have been completed.

The Forest Service left approximately 1,168 acres of the fire area untreated for species such as the black-backed woodpecker that use burned forests as habitat.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report