The state sued the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday for adopting a management plan that would allow for the construction of roads and oil drilling in California's largest national forests.

The lawsuit filed in federal court claims the plan ignores a state moratorium on road construction in pristine areas of national forests and asks for an injunction. The California Resources Agency and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection joined the suit filed by the state attorney general's office.

"Today in the face of threats, we are forced to once again stand up for California's forests," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "Despite repeated attempts to ensure that the United State Forest Service honor its written assurances that California's roadless areas would be protected they have failed to do so."

The plan would open up more than 500,000 acres in the Angeles, Los Padres, Cleveland and San Bernardino national forests to road construction. It would also allow for oil drilling on more than 52,000 acres in or around Los Padres National Forest.

Forest Service spokeswoman Allison Stewart said they were reviewing the lawsuit and looked forward to resolving the situation. Stewart did not comment on the drilling but said the roads were needed to fight fires, which have been a perennial issue in the tinder dry wilderness.

But Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said this plan was unacceptable at a time when these forests were already under threat by development and pollution, and are some of the last natural lands available to millions of Californians. The forests are in or near Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties and are the most urban-impacted forests in the National Forest system.

"As California gets millions more people and more pollutants impact these forests ... to compound the damage that already exists with roads and more vehicles and more industrial activity is just wrong," Brown said.

The suit accuses the federal agency of violating federal environmental laws that require the Forest Service to draft the management plans in coordination with state laws and policies. The Forest Service did not consider the environmental impacts of making more trails available to off-road vehicles and the potential harm to the endangered California condor from more oil and gas exploration, the lawsuit said.