February 14, 2006. In an appeal filed by Staff
Attorney Brett Paben, WildLaw won major concessions from the Forest Service in
Florida on the Smokehouse Project in the Apalachicola National Forest. In this
project, the U.S. Forest Service failed to provide for adequate public
participation in that it never released the environmental assessment (EA) for
public review and comment. By failing to do this, the agency hid the fact that
the project would have negative impacts on the threatened Flatwoods Salamander,
which occurs in the project area. The settlement of the appeal provided:
- Flatwoods salamander ponds. Implement the following restrictions:
- Redefine the boundaries of one pond (#13.01) to include protection for an area on the
north side that contains wetland vegetation.
- Define a 100-foot buffer around the ponds.
- Remove all trees in the 100-foot buffer from the timber sale.
- Within the 100-foot buffer, girdle pine trees to reduce basal area to at least 45 sq.ft./acre, which will
help the habitat.
- Install ground water monitoring wells near ponds and in wetland type soils.
- Within buffers (660 and 1500 feet), use monitoring wells to determine when the site is dry enough to allow logging.
- They also agreed to remove one stand from the sale because road reconstruction would have been within a
1,500-foot buffer of the pond (reconstruction was cost prohibitive
anyway).
- Plan a savannah restoration project in this area using girdling with K-V money from this sale.
- Adequately mark buffers (including marking on timber contracts) around listed plant species.
- Install monitoring wells in wetland type soils (Bladen soils) throughout the timber sale area and only permit logging when water table permits.
- In the future, the District will not limit the scope of projects to eliminate necessary projects (such as the
savannah restoration being eliminated here because the purpose of this project
was to improve RCW habitat).
- The Forest Service will post the EA for the Rock Pond and Harvey Mill projects on the internet for a 15-20 day
comment period prior to signing the DN/FONSI. The agency had threatened to not
allow public participation in these future projects as well, but now they will.
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