40-page ruling<\/a>, Chhabria found that the department was likely violating those restrictions by using appropriated funds to close offices and relocate employees. The judge did not determine whether the restructuring itself was sound policy.<\/p>\nWhat Does This Mean for People Who Use National Forests?<\/h2>\n
For now, the ruling does not directly change public access to national forests. But the proposed restructuring could have broader implications for how the agency manages its 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, where millions of Americans hike, camp, climb and ski.<\/p>\n
Molvar argued that replacing multi-state regional offices with state-based leadership could give individual state governments greater influence over how national forests are managed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, I think this is part of a broader move to remove regulations that protect our public lands from industrial and commercial uses,\u201d Molvar said. \u201cSo this would trend towards more logging, more clear cuts, more overgrazed lands, and lower quality recreational experiences and less native wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Happens Next?<\/h2>\n
In a statement to Outside<\/i>, a USDA spokesperson said the department is reviewing the judge\u2019s decision and \u201cwill file its response with the Court.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ruling, however, may provide only a temporary reprieve. The congressional spending restrictions underpinning the decision are scheduled to expire December 11. Congress could extend those restrictions, change them, or allow them to lapse, potentially opening a path for the administration to revisit its plans. The lawsuit itself remains pending.<\/p>\n
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit heralded the judge\u2019s decision, but acknowledged that the fight was likely to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis ruling is an important reprieve, but the fight continues as the case moves forward,\u201d reads a statement from the Coalition to Protect America\u2019s National Parks, one of the coalition of nonprofit organizations to join the plaintiff group.<\/p>\n
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a labor union and member of the plaintiff group, said in a statement that the ruling bolsters his view that Congress told the USDA that it cannot uproot workers without first getting permission from elected officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s ruling keeps those workers on the job serving the American people, and AFGE and our allies will keep fighting for as long as it takes to make sure this administration follows the law,\u201d Kelley said.<\/p>\n
Molvar said Western Watersheds Project intends to continue challenging the restructuring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be continuing to litigate the case on the merits to kill this ill-conceived notion once and for all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new court ruling temporarily stopped the agency from moving its headquarters to Utah and closing nine regional offices. Critics warn the overhaul could weaken environmental protections across 193 million acres of public land. A judge has temporarily halted plans to relocate the Forest Service headquarters (Photo: Don and Melinda Crawford\/Getty Images) Published October 15,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wild-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}