On Mar 19th, the 9th Circuit Federal Court, in a decision called
"Sequoia Forestkeeper v Thomas Tidwell" ruled against the use of the "categorical exclusion" in allowing routine forest maintenance activities. This is a national decision. What has happened, is that it has caused the FS to stop all routine maintenance activities in all wilderness areas in the US.
Up to this point, the way things worked, was that there was a provision in the law that allowed certain categories of things to be done, without going through the process of public comment and potential protest of the action. Generally, this would require a proposed action to be posted for 30 days for comment/protest, then a 45 day period during which responses would be created and sent out, and a potential appeal could be filed. So a minimum of 2-1/2 months.
So if a tree falls across a trail, a ranger could not simply go up and cut it out. They would need to go through the process.
If rocks tumbled onto the trail, FS workers could not remove them.
As a result of this, there is nationwide confusion, and the FS has basically shut down all such work until they are given direction from the Wash, DC office.
Local (CA) word from the agency people I work with, is that the coming summer season will be lost, and no projects will be done. The group I work with had 11 week-long backcountry wilderness trail projects scheduled. It looks like that is all cancelled.
