Environmentalists say the U.S. Forest Service is using the pretense of "road maintenance" to log ancient trees in Giant Sequoia National Monument. Sequoia Forestkeeper claims in Federal Court that the Hume Roadside Logging Project could remove "large-diameter old-growth trees across thousands of acres from a protected National Monument."

The logging would threaten Pacific fishers and California spotted owls in the southern Sierra Nevada, and would violate a forest management plan, the group says.

Tree removal is permitted in the monument only "if clearly needed for ecological restoration and maintenance or public safety."

The Forest Service falsely invoked this road repair exclusion without considering impacts to the fisher and owl, the group claims.

Sequoias are among the biggest trees in the world, and can live up to 3,500 years.

Read the full article