Posted on 08/01/2003 10:23:10 AM PDT by bedolido
GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal judge Thursday stopped further logging on three old growth timber sales on the Willamette National Forest until he decides whether the U.S. Forest Service acted legally in offering the trees for sale.
U.S. District Judge Garr King in Portland granted a preliminary injunction stopping work on the Straw Devil, East Devil and Pryor timber sales, which cover about 300 acres outside Oakridge. Straw Devil had been occupied by tree-sitters hoping to prevent further logging. One of them was arrested last week.
King found that the environmental groups that brought the lawsuit challenging the sales were likely to prevail on the merits of the case, to be heard Sept. 2, and allowing the logging to continue until that time would cause irreparable harm.
The judge allowed removal of timber that has already been cut and completion of harvest on a portion of the East Devil sale where had work already begun. Elsewhere, timber falling and new road construction must stop pending a final ruling.
While the sales are in an area designated for timber harvest under the Northwest Forest Plan, the Forest Service failed to adequately survey for old growth species such as the red tree vole, an important source of food for the threatened northern spotted owl, when it originally considered the environmental impacts in 1998, said Doug Heiken of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, one of the plaintiffs.
While amending the environmental assessment later, the Forest Service failed to allow full public involvement as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, Heiken added.
About 80 acres have already been logged, but a new round of logging was set to begin Friday, after Forest Service restrictions intended to protect red tree voles expired, Heiken said.
"While it is rewarding to have the court recognize the irreplaceable nature of old growth forests, this ruling just proves how important it is for Americans to be able to access the courts and force government agencies to obey the law," said Jay Ward, conservation director of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, one of the plaintiffs.
Calls to the Willamette National Forest and Forest Service regional headquarters in Portland were not immediately returned.
If environmentalists prevail in the lawsuit, the Forest Service would likely have to start over again on the environmental assessment of the logging, Heiken said.
The logging delay was a blow to Starfire Lumber Co. of Cottage Grove, which bought the East Devil timber sale, and Roseburg Forest Products, which bought Straw Devil and Pryor, because it would delay harvest of logs to supply their mills.
Starfire originally bought the East Devil sale in 1998, when it offered 4.6 million board feet of logs, but was not awarded the sale until 2002, when the volume was reduced to 2.6 million board feet due to concerns over red tree voles, said company President Robbie Robinson.
Delays in harvesting the sale will not jeopardize the survival of Starfire's mill in the short term, but will mean the loss of work for about 16 contract loggers hired to harvest the timber, and will make it more difficult for the mill to survive in the long term, said company president Robbie Robinson.
Starfire employs 65 people and specializes in milling large logs, producing clear-grained lumber for doors and windows and large building beams. The East Devil sale offered logs that fit in well with the company's products, Robinson said.
"Even if we get a favorable ruling in September, we still only have less than two months," to get the logs out before work has to stop due to restrictions on using logging roads, Robinson said. "We can't get it all out in that period of time.
"The thing that's most frustrating to me as a professional and a man responsible for managing a company is they are moving the goal posts," Robinson said.
from the website History of the Federal Judiciary. http://www.fjc.gov. Web site of the Federal Judicial Center, Washington, DC.
FJESL (Federal Judicial Executive Superlegislature) bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.