Court blocks North Carolina logging plan over endangered bat protections

A federal court has struck down a controversial logging plan for the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests in North Carolina. The ruling found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service broke the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect endangered bats from harmful timber operations. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina ruled that the agencies' analysis was deeply flawed. Their conclusions were called 'unexplained', 'unsupported', and 'of almost no value'. The court also found that the Biological Opinion underpinning the plan was unlawful, voiding the authority of the Revised Forest Plan.

The now-blocked plan had proposed a sharp increase in logging across the two forests. It also targeted sensitive areas, including critical habitat for endangered forest bats. The agencies failed to prove that these bats could survive the proposed timber cuts. Environmental groups welcomed the decision. Spencer Scheidt, a staff attorney at SELC, called it a 'major victory' for the forests and the communities that depend on them. Josh Kelly, Resilient Forests Program Director at MountainTrue, described the ruling as a key step toward a better, more widely supported management plan. Ben Prater, Southeast program director at Defenders of Wildlife, added that the decision reinforces the legal duty to protect and recover imperilled species.

The court's ruling prohibits the Forest Service from relying on the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan. This forces agencies to rethink their approach to logging in these protected areas. The decision also strengthens safeguards for endangered bats and other wildlife in the region.