INDIANA, USA — A controversial project that could be one of the largest logging and burning projects on public land ever in Indiana has stalled days before the first burns would have started, after a judge issued a preliminary injunction in favor of environmentalist organizations who have battled the U.S Forest Service over the project for years.
The U.S. Forest Service was prepared to start the burns as part of the Houston South Project project on April 1, 2023, but are now forced to halt the project entirely as a federal court considers whether the agency violated federal law in moving forward with it in the first place.
The Houston South Vegetation Management and Restoration Project would be based in a northwest corner of Jackson County, Indiana, and proposed to burn as much as 15,000 acres of forest and also apply herbicide to more than 2,100 acres near Lake Monroe over the next 10 to 15 years.
The Forest Service maintained the project was necessary to maintain the health of the forest and to restore oak-hickory ecosystems, while environmentalist organizations and advocacy groups argued the project would increase sediment runoff and ruin drinking water for at least 120,000 people.
Back in May 2020, The Indiana Forest Alliance, Monroe County Board of Commissioners, and Hoosier Environmental Council sued the Forest Service, and argued they violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Forest Management Act and Administrative Procedure Act by moving forward with the Houston South Restoration Project.
The groups also alleged the Forest Service did not properly consider new research on the endangered Indiana bat, which would have violated the Endangered Species Act, before moving forward with the project.
A federal judge partially agreed with those environmental organizations in an April 2022 ruling, deciding the Forest Service had failed to properly evaluate the project’s impact on nearby Lake Monroe. The court fell short of siding totally with those environmentalist agencies though, and did not find the Forest Service violated NEPA.
The court said then that the Forest Service had "failed to evaluate the potential impact of the Houston South Project on Lake Monroe" and noted, given Lake Monroe's role as the "sole source of drinking water for 120,000 people in southern Indiana", that it would have expected the agency to provide a "convincing statement of reasons" as to why the project's impact on Lake Monroe would not be significant.
The judge ordered the project should be remanded, sent back to the Forest Service, for further consideration.
Despite that admonishment, the U.S Forest Service announced in December 2022 that a “correction, supplement, or revision to the project’s Environmental Assessment" that formed the basis for why they could move forward with the project was "not necessary," according to court documents.
Instead, the Forest Service issued a final supplemental information report, or SIR, reiterating they would move forward with the project as planned because of its "time sensitive nature".
Shortly after that final SIR was made public, the same three organizations involved in the original lawsuit - and the Friends of Lake Monroe organization - sued the Forest Service again, in January 2023.
They once again argued the Forest Service had violated NEPA, by ignoring the order to further consider the project's impact on the quality of drinking water at Lake Monroe.
The agencies also filed for a preliminary injunction to all project activities - to halt all activity on the Houston South Project - until the judge could rule if the Forest Service had violated NEPA or not.
The Forest Service argued in court those four environmental organizations suing them could "not prove they were entitled to a preliminary injunction" to stop all project activities, so the request should be denied.
The agency also said, if the court were to determine a preliminary injunction were appropriate, the environmental organizations would have to post a bond of $115,906.00.
On Wednesday, March 29, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana disagreed with the Forest Service and granted a preliminary injunction, which put a definitive halt to project activities as the court considers the four environmental organization's original claims that the Forest Service violated NEPA, as outlined in their January lawsuit.
The court determined in its decision granting the preliminary injunction that this was not a case where the Forest Service was faced with "new, significant information" or "changed circumstances".
Rather, the court found the Forest Service used that SIR released in December to present information and analysis that it was required - but according to the SJ Order, failed to include - in its initial NEPA document.
"The Forest Service knew, or should have known, that it needed to provide this information and analysis at the time it prepared the original EAs and EISs," the judge wrote in their decision. "Were this merely a question of science, this decision would likely favor the Forest Service. But the type of deficiency here is a procedural one."
They also ruled the Forest Service failed to "take the requisite 'hard look' at the environmental consequences" of the Houston South Project because it prepared a supplemental information report rather that an EA or EIS as mandated under the NEPA and its implementing regulations.
The Forest Service must prove the project will not have a significant impact on Lake Monroe before resuming any activities related to the Houston South project.
Environmentalists now await the judge's decision on the merits of their claims that the Forest Service was in violation of NEPA.
The court also reduced the $115,906 bond fee the environmentalist groups have to pay to $11,596.
The Forest Service told 13News they are "reviewing options" and do not comment on pending litigation.
