Posts

Showing posts from January, 2015

Forest Service Action Highlights Need for FOIA Reform

The Forest Service has refused to disclose documents regarding the Upper Echo Lake Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project.  More than four months after Dr. Dennis Murphy filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for e-mail regarding the Project in the possession of the agency's supervisor with oversight of the Project and lead biologist with respect to the Project, the agency has yet to turn over a single responsive record.  Instead, the agency attempted to fend off Dr. Murphy's inquiry by denying his request for fee waiver.  Dr. Murphy filed an administrative appeal of that decision, which the agency granted. As a consequence, Dr. Murphy has established he meets the agency's requirements for a fee waiver. After the agency granted Dr. Murphy's administrative appeal, it nonetheless failed to produce the responsive records, requesting that Dr. Murphy consider narrowing his request.  Though he agreed to narrow his request and in spite of the facts that the request was