Alabama national forests emergency powers framework needs public scrutiny
Emergency Actions and Closure Orders
U.S. Forest Service· National Forests in AlabamaU.S. Forest Service project page ↗
Forest ServiceWe track this on the agency’s own system of record, where most on-the-ground decisions live.
The groups on this fight
One group predicted likely to care in Alabama
Predicted likely to care is a guess from footprint in Alabama, by the same match the STAND matchmaker runs, with no link to this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Southern Environmental Law Center
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Works Alabama: 1 live federal case across all their work.
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
The Forest Service wants standing authority to act across Alabama's national forests without project-by-project public review.
What’s at risk
Public oversight of emergency actions and closure orders on Alabama's national forests is at stake. A programmatic framework could allow the agency to bypass site-specific environmental review across the Southern Region.
If this goes through
If approved, the Forest Service gains a pre-authorized, repeatable framework to issue emergency actions and closures on Alabama national forests with reduced public input on individual decisions.
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
3 holes in the agency’s own analysis
Make these points, in your own words
- I oppose this action as proposed, and I ask the agency to weigh the specific harms below.
- A single programmatic framework covering the entire Southern Region risks bypassing the kind of thorough, location-specific NEPA analysis that protects the unique ecosystems and public uses of Alabama's national forests.
- Closure orders authorized under this framework could restrict public access to national forest lands in Alabama without requiring individual environmental review for each affected area.
- Emergency action authorizations covering logging, mining, and infrastructure on national forests in Alabama should not be streamlined in ways that reduce transparency or public input for each specific project.
- Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.
In the agency’s own words
This programmatic environmental assessment analyzes effects of emergency actions and closure orders on national forests in the Southern Region and establishes a consistent and efficient framework for authorizing these activities.
The reporting behind this
From More Than Just ParksIt’s referred to as Unit 346 in the Twin Mountain II Timber Sale. On the ground, it’s some of the most spectacular old growth we’ve ever witnessed, and it’s marked for clearcutting.
To document and do our part to save America’s greatest old growth forest
More actions that need you
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