The state of California filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday, claiming the agency's management plan will allow too much road construction and oil drilling in Southern California forests while not doing enough to protect natural resources.

The endangered California condor, which roosts in Ventura County, was singled out as potentially being affected by the agency's management plan, a blueprint on how to use and protect the more than 3.5 million acres of national forest in Southern California.

Attorney General Jerry Brown hopes the suit will force the Forest Service to alter management practices in the region's four national forests, including Los Padres, because its actions violate national environmental laws as well as the agency's own policies.

"They are tearing up the forest in a way that is inconsistent with the national forest policy, and we need to preserve the quality of the forest. It's go development, damn the consequences,'" Brown said. "The Bush administration has an assault on California, and we are trying to defend against it."

It's the second time this year that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken the federal government to task on environmental issues. The governor sued the Environmental Protection Agency this year in an attempt to enact stricter air standards in California.

Battling for years

Environmental groups rallied around Thursday's suit, saying it will help protect the forests and lend muscle to a fight they have been battling for years. The forest management plan was drawn up in 2005 and approved in 2006 by the Forest Service but has been challenged by environmental groups and the state.

"I appreciate that the state of California is acting on behalf of the public trust, rather than making some citizen like myself who has no resources try to do that," said Alan Sanders, the conservation chairman of Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club who has been lobbying against Forest Service policies for years. "It really does feel good to have this kind of backup."

Forest Service officials said they were surprised to learn of the suit. Any new roads built in national forests are designed to give firefighters access to remote regions during wildfires, they said.

"We are certainly disappointed to hear of the lawsuit today. We do enjoy a good working relationship with the state," said Janice Gauthier, a spokeswoman for the Forest Service. "Clearly we have a point of contention here."

Gauthier declined to discuss details of the lawsuit, saying she had not seen it yet.

The suit claims the Forest Service told the California Resources Agency that no roads would be built in roadless areas, but it eventually reneged on the promise.

"Time and again, we have tried to hold the Forest Service to their word on the roadless policy," said state Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman, who filed the suit along with Brown. "They have failed to live up to their promises."

Brown said the Forest Service failed to incorporate state laws when drawing up its management plan, a violation of the National Forest Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The state has a moratorium on construction in any roadless areas.

"Defendants utterly violated these unambiguous NMFA mandates," the suit says. It claims the Forest Service didn't conduct environmental analysis of the plan to allow road building, an Environmental Policy Act violation.

Although the Forest Service originally told the state no new road building would be included in the final forest plan, the 2005 document did include provisions that would allow roads, according to the suit.

While the suit looks at all four national forests — Los Padres, Angeles, Cleveland and San Bernardino — it singles out Los Padres in a number of instances.

The suit claims a lack of analysis on how increased oil drilling in Los Padres could affect the California condor, the endangered bird that for years has been a symbol of the environmental movement.

'Demanding accountability'

In 2005, the Forest Service approved a plan that would allow new drilling rigs on more than 4,000 acres of Los Padres, some of them near a condor sanctuary north of Fillmore. The Forest Service has said as little as 20 acres might actually be developed, much of that near areas where there has been drilling for decades.

Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, applauded the suit, noting all that has been done to protect the condor. This year, a law banning lead bullets in condor country will take effect to protect the birds from lead poisoning.

"Once we make progress on one front, now we have to fight the federal government, which has become the new threat to the condor," he said.

Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch, also welcomed the suit. Kuyper's group appealed the forest plan when it came out in 2005 and is still trying to get the Forest Service to hear its appeal. Many of the group's contentions are similar to those in the lawsuit, including that oil drilling could harm the condors and new roads are unneeded.

"It's good to see the state stepping up and demanding accountability of our federal management agencies," he said. "This plan is like a blueprint for our local backcountry and a guide for the management of it over the next decade or more, so it's important to get it right."