CONCORD, N.H. (June 23, 2025) — Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic filed suit today alleging that the U.S. Forest Service violated federal law by failing to consider vital environmental impacts in approving a destructive commercial logging project in New Hampshire.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the complaint by forest protection group Standing Trees challenges the Sandwich Vegetation Management Project, which was recently approved by the Forest Service in the Sandwich Range, one of the most popular areas of New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest.
The project authorizes 638 acres of commercial timber harvest across 1,325 acres of predominantly mature and old forest, prescribed burns on 306 acres and over 16 miles of road construction and reconstruction.
“I’ve made my living off of the land for my entire life, including logging in the White Mountain National Forest,” said local resident Fred Lavigne of Sandwich, New Hampshire. “The Forest Service got this one wrong. The Sandwich Range is rich in human and natural history, and that legacy is being threatened by this heavy-handed and poorly-designed logging project.”
This project will significantly alter a treasured region of the southern White Mountain National Forest, including lands bordering the landmark Mount Chocorua Scenic Area and the Sandwich Range Wilderness. Hundreds of local residents and frequent visitors to the region voiced opposition to the project, but the Forest Service made few changes based on the feedback it received.
Maura King, president of the Wonalancet Preservation Association, said, “I moved to Wonalancet almost 40 years ago for its beauty and varied year round, outdoor activities. The natural beauty of this jewel of a recreation area is now threatened by a major logging project that aims to treat our beautiful forest like a cash register to be revisited again and again to make unsightly withdrawals. The Wonalancet Preservation Association was founded in 1973 with the mission of preventing pollution and commercial activities detrimental to the natural beauty of the Wonalancet Basin, which is ground zero for this latest ‘management’ project.”
She continued, “The fact that Wonalancet and Ferncroft remain bucolic is no accident. It is the purpose of this organization to protect this beautiful area for generations to come. It is for this reason we join with Standing Trees to oppose this latest affront to the forest, the animals that live here, the people who recreate here and the climate that depends on these large unspoiled areas.”
The lawsuit cites legal violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, including the Forest Service’s failures to analyze alternatives and take a “hard look” at the Sandwich project’s impacts on forest health, climate change, water quality, transportation, soils, endangered species like the northern long-eared bat, and the region’s incredible scenic and recreational resources.
“This project, like others before it, ignores what makes the White Mountain National Forest unique and puts short-term private gain over long-term public benefits like clean water, climate resilience, habitat for endangered wildlife and recreation,” said Zack Porter, executive director of Standing Trees. “The public loves and treasures the wild beauty of the White Mountains and deserves a meaningful process that fully considers their input. When the Forest Service won’t follow the law, we will ask the courts to step in.”
The complaint also identifies the project’s failure to consider cumulative impacts in conjunction with other logging projects and the Forest Service’s failures to comply with the White Mountain National Forest Plan, a requirement of the National Forest Management Act.
“In project after project, the Forest Service continues to run roughshod over federal law by failing to justify its decisions and to conduct the bare minimum environmental review,” said Christophe Courchesne, associate professor and director of the Environmental Advocacy Clinic. “At a time when federal environmental protections are increasingly under attack by this administration, courts have an important role in holding federal agencies to their legal obligations.”
Another stakeholder, Isaiah Thompson, said, “As a city kid, our family’s annual visits to the Sandwich Range in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest formed a crucial part of my appreciation for nature and the preservation of public forests. I hope our newborn baby, Iris, will have the same opportunity to experience the wonders of nature by exploring these mature forests herself one day. I appreciate the Forest Service for its role in managing our public lands and facilitating access to anyone, but I am disappointed by this outdated and ill-considered drive to allow private commercial interests to log these forests. The public spoke forcefully against the Sandwich Range Vegetation Management Project, yet these objections were ignored. I thank Standing Trees for its action to hold the USFS accountable to its own standards.”
The lawsuit follows advocacy by the Environmental Advocacy Clinic on Standing Trees’ behalf during the administrative review of the project, including extensive objections filed with the Forest Service in May 2024. The litigation also builds on the clinic’s concerted advocacy against the White Mountain National Forest’s unlawful approvals of other recent commercial logging projects, including its pending lawsuit seeking reconsideration of the Tarleton and Peabody West projects and recent comments filed opposing the Lost River Integrated Resource Project.
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Together with Standing Trees, Vermont Law and Graduate School Environmental Advocacy Clinic student attorneys Joe Anderson, Ben Behimer, Lakshita Dey and Blythe Faris, and Director Christophe Courchesne led the drafting and filing of the complaint, with support from Clinic program coordinator Taylor Cox and former student attorney Hannah Weisgerber.
Vermont Law and Graduate School, a private, independent institution, is home to a law school that offers ABA-accredited residential and online hybrid JD programs and a graduate school that offers master’s degrees and certificates in multiple disciplines, including programs offered by the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, the Center for Justice Reform and other graduate-level programs emphasizing the intersection of environmental justice, social justice and public policy. Both the law and graduate schools strongly feature experiential clinical and field work learning. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu, Facebook and Instagram.
Standing Trees is a grassroots membership organization that works to protect and restore New England’s forests for the benefit of the climate, clean water, and biodiversity, with a focus on state and federal public lands in New Hampshire and Vermont. Standing Trees members regularly visit and recreate throughout the White Mountain National Forest, including the areas impacted by the Sandwich Project. For more information, visit standingtrees.org, or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.