Posted on 09/13/2005 10:30:14 AM PDT by SmithL
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge halted the Bush administration's bid to keep logging 2,000 acres in Giant Sequoia National Monument, saying he "called into question" the scientific analysis used to justify cutting in a preserve that houses two-thirds of the world's largest trees.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, ruling in a lawsuit brought by environmentalists, also questioned whether fire control was the government's real motive for allowing commercial logging in the monument. The so-called "Saddle Project" was approved years ago, but cutting only commenced this summer, when timber prices were high.
Click here for more... The government, Breyer wrote late Friday in issuing a preliminary injunction barring further logging, "waited five years to execute this contract because of unfavorable timber prices."
In 2000, just after the project was approved, Congress declared Sequoia National Forest a national monument, which generally prevented further logging on thousands of acres in the Central Valley area of Tulare County. The government argued the project was grandfathered in and therefore not covered by monument rules.
The Justice Department, which defended the logging plan in court here, declined to say whether it would challenge Breyer's injunction. If it does not, the case is over and the acreage is safe from harvesting. The government could also take the issue to trial.
Breyer ruled that he was unsure whether the project, which included harvesting 31,000 conifer trees that are hundreds of years old, "would still protect the forest from fire."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
what a moron.
Yeah, there's no need to manage the forests. AS long as you have good intentions, who cares if the entire forest burns down? As long as a few trees were saved from loggin, that's all that matters!
Two words come to mind.... "EXECUTIVE ORDER"
It is not a judge's job to question the scientific analysis or motivations behind a contract.
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