Forestry

           The firm has litigated over 50 forestry cases, in both state and federal courts.  State cases typically require enforcement of the California Forest Practice Act and the California Environmental Quality Act, and sometimes require enforcement of the Clean Water Act in conjunction with the state Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act.  Federal cases typically involve enforcement of the National Forest Management Act and/or the Federal Endangered Species Act.

            In 1987, Mr. Lippe represented the Environmental Protection Information Center at trial in the first lawsuit challenging the California Department of Forestry’s approval of Pacific Lumber Company's Timber Harvest Plans after Maxxam, Inc. acquired Pacific Lumber.  This litigation resulted in a permanent injunction preventing logging of one of the virgin old-growth redwood groves in the Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County that the federal and state governments later acquired as part of the Headwaters Forest Preserve.

            From 1988 to 1994, Mr. Lippe represented the Sierra Club and Environmental Protection Information Center against the California Department of Forestry and Pacific Lumber Company in a case challenging the Department’s approval of two Pacific Lumber Company Timber Harvest Plans in virgin old-growth redwood groves.  This litigation resulted in a published decision by the California Supreme Court in Sierra Club v. State Board of Forestry (1994) 7 Cal.4th 1215, which established the precedent that the Department of Forestry has the authority, under the California Environmental Quality Act and the Forest Practice Act, to require timberland owners to conduct surveys for wildlife species that may be harmed by logging.

            From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Lippe represented the Environmental Protection Information Center against Pacific Lumber Company and the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service in a federal court action to enforce the federal Endangered Species Act.  Mr. Lippe obtained a preliminary injunction that prohibited Pacific Lumber from logging in the Headwaters Grove in the Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County.  The federal and state governments later acquired this grove as the centerpiece of the Headwaters Forest Preserve.  This litigation resulted in two published decisions:  Marbled Murrelet v. Babbitt, 83 F.3d 1068 (9th Cir. 1996); and Marbled Murrelet v. Babbitt, 111 F.3d 1447 (9th Cir. 1997).

            In 1999, Mr. Lippe designed a legal program for the environmental community to address the failure of the California Department of Forestry to adequately evaluate the impact of Sierra Pacific Industries’ logging on over 750,000 acres of timberland in the Sierra Nevada Range logging on the forest ecosystem.  Since 1999, the firm has implemented this program by prosecuting seven cases challenging the Department’s approval of eleven Sierra Pacific Industries’ Timber Harvest Plans.  The last of these cases is currently pending in the California Supreme Court.