MAINE MORNING STAR • July 6, 2025
A group of environmentalists have launched a legal battle to stop a logging project in the Sandwich Range of New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest. The project will allow 638 acres to be logged by private companies, reconstruct 16 miles of roads and authorize prescribed burns on 306 acres. The Forest Service has said that the project will help provide a sustainable supply of timber diversify vegetation and wildlife. In a lawsuit, Standing Trees, Inc. and attorneys with the Environmental Advocacy Clinic (EAC) allege the Forest Service didn’t sufficiently prove logging was necessary in the area or go through the proper steps for environmental review and public input. “At the presidential level and at the top of the agency, there’s a real imperative to get these logging projects going,” said Christophe Courchesne, an attorney with the EAC. “And there’s a real set of commands, through executive orders and other directives, to put more of these national forest lands on the chopping block.”