ACTION TIMELINE

July 26, 2001 – For the third time, the Center appealed the Forest Service's Southwest Regional Office to withdraw the proposed Corner Mountain fire-salvage timber sale on New Mexico's Gila National Forest.

2002 – Center cofounders Kierán Suckling and Todd Schulke co-authored “Ecological Restoration of Southern Ponderosa Pine Ecosystems: A Broad Perspective,” an article promoting ecological restoration of southwestern ponderosa pine forests that is now the most frequently cited study in academic articles about western forest fires and restoration.

June 2002 – The Rodeo-Chediski fire burned nearly 300,000 acres of eastern Arizona, extending into the Baca timber sale area on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. This added to evidence that, despite many politicians' claims, nearly all the areas of Apache-Sitgreaves affected by fire have been logged and heavily roaded. The fire occurred during Center litigation against the Baca timber sale, which sought to limit the sale to small, fire-prone trees.

July 9, 2002 – The U.S. General Accounting Office and Forest Service both released reports on logging project appeals that, upon close inspection, revealed that environmentalists consistently oppose logging of old-growth forests, large trees, roadless areas, and endangered species habitat, and consistently support the burning and thinning of small trees near communities at risk from forest fire.

May 21, 2003 – The Center and 119 other organizations unveiled a set of forest restoration principles dubbed the “Citizen's Call for Ecological Restoration: Forest Restoration Principles and Criteria.” The principles called for a two-year bridge-building effort between conservation groups, community forestry advocates, and restoration practitioners to develop a commonsensical, science-based agreement to restore the nation's forests.

July 29, 2003 – The Center and other groups spoke out at a Forest Advisory and Oversight Committees meeting in Flagstaff, Arizona to oppose forest health and thinning projects focused on commercial interests rather than community protection and conservation science — projects such as President George W. Bush's so-called “Healthy Forest Initiative.”

August 10, 2003 – With President Bush in Tucson to promote his “Healthy Forests Initiative,” the Center co-hosted a rally and press conference to show the administration that it should protect fire-prone communities rather than promoting old-growth logging and limiting public involvement in forest management.

December 19, 2007 – Congress passed an appropriations bill setting aside $39.4 million for urgently needed watershed restoration on national forest lands.

February 29, 2008 – In a draft environmental impact statement, the Kaibab National Forest outlined plans to tractor-log 73 million board feet from 9,000 acres of forest recovering from the 2006 Warm Fire north of the Grand Canyon. Ignoring science and public concern, the agency chose the most destructive alternative and failed to analyze a natural recovery alternative for the area.

May 14, 2009 – The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and WildEarth Guardians filed an administrative appeal challenging the U.S. Forest Service for its failure to protect burned soils and wildlife habitat in a logging project slated for forests burned by the Warm Fire north of the Grand Canyon in 2006.

April 24, 2009 – Representatives from the Center, Grand Canyon Trust, and Arizona Forest Restoration Products signed a landmark agreement committing mutual support to a plan to safely restore beneficial wildfires and conserve biodiversity in northern Arizona fire-starved ponderosa pine forests.

July 6, 2009 – The Center, Sierra Club, and WildEarth Guardians sued the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to block a logging project slated for forests burned by the Warm Fire on the Kaibab Plateau north of the Grand Canyon in 2006.

Photo by jmcphers/Flickr