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In 2012, Sierra Pacific Industries was ordered to pay $55 million to the United States and transfer 22,500 acres of land to the United States government after the Department of Justice launched a massive lawsuit against the company. The DOJ argued that the company was responsible for a massive fire that destroyed 65,000 acres of land in California. Since the beginning of the case, however, Sierra Pacific has insisted that the fire started elsewhere and that the Department of Justice was being deceitful in their prosecution. Now, new evidence showing an outrageous miscarriage of justice has emerged, including the DOJ's...

Corrupt federal prosecutors presenting false evidence in order to shake down a blameless corporation and bring in tens of millions of dollars seems like a pretty dramatic story. Especially when former prosecutors support the charge and a chief judge acts on the allegations and takes dramatic action. Yet the media silence is deafening. Eric Holder’s Justice Department is implicated in a dramatic and shocking case of alleged corruption that is so bad that the Chief Judge of the Eastern District of California has taken what can rightly be called the “nuclear option” and recused all the judges in the district...

In perhaps the most stunning documentation yet of abuses by Eric Holder’s Justice Department, two former Assistant United States Attorneys spoke to defense attorneys and revealed appalling deceit and corruption of justice. This latest litigation time bomb has exploded from multi-million dollar litigation originally brought by the Department of Justice against Sierra Pacific based on allegations that the lumber company and related defendants were responsible for a wildfire that destroyed 65,000 acres in California. In what was dubbed the “Moonlight Fire” case, the tables are now turned. The defendants have discovered new evidence and filed a stunning motion. The new...

Will clear-cutting forests increase global warming? That's a contentious issue as California, which is seeking to slash its carbon footprint, wrestles over rules to manage the state's private forests. The Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based environmental group, this week filed lawsuits against the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in seven California counties to halt logging plans for 5,000 acres across the Sierra Nevada and Cascade regions. The group contends that the agency approved the projects without properly analyzing carbon emissions and climate consequences under the California Environmental Quality Act. "Clear-cutting is an abysmal practice that should have...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and timber giant Sierra Pacific Industries on Wednesday evening announced the nation's largest forest carbon-offset project, meant to keep millions of tons of climate-warming gases out of the atmosphere over the next century. Forestry and some conservation groups said the deal shows the state's new rules on forest offsets, adopted last week by the Air Resources Board, will be attractive to landowners. But some environmental advocates said it's a sign that the timber industry is poised to capitalize on a provision that allows clear-cutting on land enrolled in carbon-offset programs. "This is the thing we were worried...

The California Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Northern California timber company that plans to clear-cut more than 1,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada. In an unanimous ruling Thursday, the state's high court said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had acted properly in approving logging plans submitted by Sierra Pacific Industries. Those plans call for clear-cutting about 1,100 acres near Calaveras Big Trees State Park in Calaveras County. Sierra Pacific, California's largest private landowner, has indicated it wants to replicate the same forest-clearing practice on 70 percent of its holdings. The Anderson-based company owns 1.6...

PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. Forest Service and California's largest private landowner have agreed to a land swap they say will benefit both of them and the public. The Forest Service will give Anderson-based Sierra Pacific Industries 1,843 acres of the Eldorado National Forest, broken into 14 parcels, in exchange for 16 parcels totaling 3,394 acres, under an agreement posted this week. The lands were appraised at equal market value, the Forest Service said. The exchange will reduce the need for Sierra Pacific to build new roads to its parcels within what are supposed to be roadless areas, helping...

Apaches' bitter harvest Photos by Aaron J. Latham / Arizona Daily StarBIA forester Frederick von Bonin inspects timber. When emergency harvest is over, the Apache mainstay will be severely curbed for a century. This summer's Rodeo-Chediski fire, largest in Arizona's history, burned 276,507 acres of Apache land, 462,606 acres in all. Fresh snow shows through the stands of scorched forest almost as far as the eye can see on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. The tribe is harvesting a century's worth of timber in six months. Burned trees' loss transcends the economicBy Tom BealARIZONA DAILY STAR CIBECUE - The forests...

ANGELS CAMP -- Mother Lode environmental groups Tuesday called for closer scrutiny of chemical pesticide usage by Sierra Pacific Industries after a report showed the logging giant applied more than 21/2 tons of herbicide last year on its Calaveras and Tuolumne county properties. The Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center published results of a study that showed Sierra Pacific applied 5,139 pounds and more than 2,800 gallons of herbicides in the two counties during 2001. The company owns about 148,000 acres of land in the two counties. The Twain Harte-based group said it obtained the herbicide information from agricultural commissioners...