Firefighters' group files lawsuit against Forest Service

A group of USDA Forest Service employees filed a first-ever lawsuit challenging the Forest Service's firefighting mission and practices Oct. 22 in a U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont.

“Too many firefighters die each year in a fruitless and self-defeating war against fire,” said Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, an Oregon-based group of 12,000 former and current Forest Service employees and agency watchdogs.

According to a report in the local newspaper, The Missoulian, FSEEE attorneys recounted the history of wildland firefighting and the changes brought to Western forests by fire suppression. In addition to challenging the Forest Service's firefighting practices and impacts, the suit questions the use of chemical fire retardants in wildland firefighting. It asks that an environmental impact statement be written to evaluate the pros and cons of retardant use, and ultimately of the Forest Service's firefighting practices and policies.

“The Forest Service has never, not once in its history, weighed the pros and cons of firefighting,” Marc Fink, an attorney representing FSEEE in the lawsuit told The Missoulian.

And yet, firefighters die every year, “trying to fight an act of nature,” said Stahl.

A national organization of U.S. Forest Service retirees responded by calling the lawsuit “frivolous” and “irresponsible.” It pointed to the wildfires raging in California and the fact that firefighting actions and retardant drops were saving thousands of lives and millions of dollars in property loss.

“It is so outrageous, it boggles my mind,” said Richard Pfilf, executive director of National Association of Forest Service Retirees, to The Missoulian. “FSEEE mischievously contrived this lawsuit as a way to interfere with and subvert proven, effective methods of fighting forest fires.”

According to NAFSR: “Retirees wonder how anyone can be so irresponsible as to demand stopping the use of retardant to prepare an EIS when Santa Ana winds are now pushing an inferno through southern California communities. NAFSR believes the legal action by FSEEE to be morally repugnant, threatening lives and property by interfering with the operation of firefighting agencies across the country.”

The Forest Service had not yet responded to the lawsuit as this issue went to press. Stahl said he expected the case to be argued and decided by the spring of next year.

For updates on the lawsuit, visit The Missoulian at www.missoulian.com.