…Shawnee is the only national forest in the state and one of the smallest in the nation. The agency initially billed the timber sale, called the McCormick Oak-Hickory Restoration Project, as a “thinning” operation to remove older trees and make room for younger saplings. But logging operations contribute to habitat loss, and Stearns found the Forest Service’s justification lacking. … For months, he and other local environmentalists scoured the web and newspapers for mentions of the sale to prepare for the comment period, but the McCormick Project never turned up. …It turned out that the Forest Service advertised the project under a different name — “V-Plow” — and by the time advocates realized it, they were a week into the project’s three-week comment period. …The following month, Stearns and other environmentalists sued the agency, trying to block the plan.