Los Padres ForestWatch
“Protect and restore the Los Padres National Forest and surrounding public lands.”
22 years on the ground, 2 comments to the agencies.
The origin
How they started
Los Padres ForestWatch guards a specific patch of ground: the Los Padres National Forest and Carrizo Plain along California’s central coast. A handful of advocates started it around a picnic table in 2004, and it has punched well above its size in court. With partners it forced the Forest Service to shelve a plan to lease 52,000 acres for drilling and fracking, helped overturn a federal scheme to open more than a million acres to oil, and won permanent closure of old wells inside Carrizo Plain in 2022.
How they run
Small and lean
We don’t hold a detailed federal filing for this group. Groups this size often file the short form or run below the IRS reporting line, so there’s no budget or crew to show here, and that’s no knock: some of the sharpest local defense in the country runs this way.
Run this group? Claim the page and send us your numbers. An editor checks them before they go up.
In court
Fights alongside Center for Biological Diversity (3 shared cases), American Alpine Club (1 shared case), Earthjustice (1 shared case), Earthworks (1 shared case) and National Wildlife Federation (1 shared case) and 6 more. Same case, same side, on the federal docket. Their dockets on CourtListener.
The record
On the record with the agencies
2 comments on federal decisions since 2023, each filed under the group’s own name on regulations.gov. The latest on decisions we track:
Year by year
The record, in order
- 2004Los Padres ForestWatch is formed.the return, formation year
- 2018State of California v. Zinke: plaintiff, closed.the docket
- 2022Los Padres Forestwatch v. United States Forest Service: plaintiff, closed.the docket
- 2023Los Padres Forestwatch v. USFS: plaintiff, closed.the docket
- 1 comment to the Fish and Wildlife Service, under the group’s own name.regulations.gov
- 20261 comment to NOAA, under the group’s own name.regulations.gov
Hollow, a filing. Every row is a record we hold: 3 federal cases with the group on the docket, 2 comments filed under its own name. Nothing here is written from memory.
Their ground
The places they defend
See every threatened place on one map, and who stands for each.
The California congressional delegation averages 82 of 100 on public lands. See the full scorecard
Ways in
How to help
Straight to their own donation page. Your dollar never passes through us.
Give on their site ↗SpeakComment and callOpen comment windows and call scripts for fights like these, ready to send.
Public Lands Action NetworkFollowWatch the mapEvery threatened place in the country, tracked, with who stands for each.
Threatened Lands MapStand with Los Padres ForestWatch
The mission is theirs. The backing is yours.