Case Number: SLS No. 98-026
Title: Public Participation in National Forest Management: the Sierra Nevada Framework for Conservation and Collaboration and the Quincy Library Group

Case Files: Case (18 pages)  |  Exhibits (158 pages)

Teaching Note: SLS No. 98-027 (forthcoming)

Author: Josh Eagle, Case Writer; Barton H. (“Buzz”) Thompson, Jr., Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law

Abstract: In the early 1990s, the U.S. Forest Service began a process of amending forest plans for 11 Sierra Nevada National Forests, in an attempt to address changing socioeconomic and ecological conditions and to incorporate new scientific information. This effort, known as the Sierra Framework, was nearly complete when, in 1998, Congress passed the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery Act. That law required the Forest Service to manage three of the 11 Sierra Framework forests in a very specific way. An attorney for the Forest Service’s Regional Forester must decide whether and how the Framework and the Quincy Library Group bill can be implemented simultaneously. In particular, the attorney must consider issues related to the National Environmental Policy Act processes for each program.

Key Words: Forest management, public lands, National Forest Management Act, National Environmental Policy Act, environmental impact statement, Quincy Library Group, consensus groups.