"The Forest Service didn’t make a ‘reasoned decision’ in using a categorical exclusion to exempt timber harvests from environmental reviews to ease wildfire mitigation and habitat improvement, the judge ruled."
"A niche rule established by the U.S. Forest Service to justify the clearing of tens of thousands of acres of forest in the name of reducing wildfire risk was unlawfully created and applied, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon found last week, invalidating its future use across the United States.
Federal agencies have long used a range of “categorical exclusions” for projects deemed to have an insignificant environmental impact, allowing them to forgo the environmental assessments and impact statements required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Federal agencies claim this helps reduce paperwork and save time on activities that have a negligible negative environmental impact.
In 1992, the U.S. Forest Service created Categorical Exclusion 6, or CE-6, focused on timber stand and wildlife habitat improvement—including forest thinning to reduce wildfire hazard. Over the years, the Forest Service has used CE-6 to expedite vegetation management projects, quickly cutting through red tape.
Given the intent of categorical exclusions, environmental groups argued that CE-6 should have been used for small-scale projects. But the exclusion contained no acreage cap, volume limit or project-size constraint. By the early 2000s, the Forest Service was routinely using CE-6 to authorize large-scale commercial logging projects with marketable timber sales under the auspices of wildfire management on public lands."
Gloria Dickie reports for Inside Climate News January 21, 2026.
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