(Feb. 4) The Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson, Ariz.-based environmental group, has filed seven lawsuits against the California Department of Forestry for approving logging projects on privately held lands. The 15 logging plans were all proposed by the timber company Sierra Pacific Industries and cover approximately 5,000 acres of California forests in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade regions.

The seven lawsuits, filed in superior courts in Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Modoc, Shasta, Tehama and Trinity counties, claim that the state violated the California Environmental Quality Act and Forest Practice Act by approving Sierra Pacific’s timber-harvest plans without properly analyzing carbon emissions and climate consequences. The environmental group opposes clear-cutting, which it describes as “damaging to wildlife and water quality, generat[ing] the most greenhouse gases of any logging method.”

The California Department of Forestry is responsible for approving all logging plans on private land in California and must ensure that each proposed plan complies with the California Environmental Quality Act.

Mark Pawlicki, a spokesman for Sierra Pacific, described the lawsuits as “groundless,” saying that the company’s timber harvesting plan carefully examines environmental and air quality effects, as well as carbon dioxide sequestration rates.

“[The Center for Biological Diversity] has made it clear from its litigation that their goal is to destroy the jobs of hard-working Californians in rural communities,” Pawlicki said. “This out-of-state organization is running roughshod over the jobs that have already been lost in our mills, but they still are not satisfied. Apparently, they won’t be happy until they have taken away every forest-related job in California.”