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JUDGE HALTS TIMBER SALES AT EASTERN OREGON SITE
The Oregonian ^ | Feb. 15, 2003 | MICHAEL MILSTEIN

Posted on 02/21/2003 11:16:25 AM PST by madfly

Celebrity attorney Johnny Cochrane, magical frogs and vampires did not translate Friday into permission to cut more than 15,000 burned and hazardous trees in Eastern Oregon's Malheur National Forest.

U.S. District Judge Ancer L. Haggerty quickly rejected arguments by federal and timber industry attorneys that environmental groups use one-size-fits-all legal arguments as their personal "magical incantations" to shut down logging on public lands.

Haggerty shut down six of seven timber sales in the Malheur after finding that the U.S. Forest Service had illegally tried to squeeze the sales through a procedural shortcut that permits pruning and clearing of roadside brush. He allowed one sale along a busy county road to remove trees that could fall on the road.

The move blocked the same kind of shortcut the Bush administration has proposed using to speed small logging and thinning projects.

It was the fourth logging project Haggerty has stopped in Eastern and Central Oregon in the past year on the grounds that federal foresters had not thoroughly examined the environmental impacts. Each was contested by Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, based in Wheeler County.

A lawyer for D.R. Johnson Lumber Co., which bought four of the seven Malheur sales, had contended that the environmental group applied boilerplate arguments from the other cases to stop the Malheur cutting when it was in the best interest of public safety.

Attorney Michael Dundy likened the environmental group's arguments, involving ecological damage from logging burned trees, to "magical incantations" he recalled from a childhood television show featuring a frog that granted children's wishes.

Dundy said the group's goal is "to eliminate any human involvement whatsoever in the management of national forest lands." The group he said, "wants to condition the courts of Oregon so that when they utter the magic words, there is only one right way of deciding the case."

When he hears the group advancing such arguments, he said, he thinks of movies "where citizens of Transylvania will hold up a crucifix to ward off the vampires."

"It's like a one-size-fits-all glove that can be used at any time," he said.

But, "if it doesn't fit," Dundy said, the judge must deny the request to stop the sales. He echoed the argument of O.J. Simpson attorney Johnny Cochrane that "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit."

Haggerty bought none of it.

Instead, he said the Forest Service could have easily completed a public review so the Malheur logging could proceed legally. Cutting the 15,000 trees -- about 1.7 million board feet -- violates a federal provision that allows pruning and removal of limited trees that involve minimal environmental impacts, he said.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Oregon
KEYWORDS: enviralists; forestmanagement; forestservice; logging; oregon; timbersales

1 posted on 02/21/2003 11:16:25 AM PST by madfly
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To: Free the USA; Carry_Okie; backhoe; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Libertarianize the GOP; freefly; 2sheep; ...
ping
2 posted on 02/21/2003 11:17:17 AM PST by madfly
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To: Battle Hymn of the Republic; B4Ranch; Bella_Bru; Bettina; Black Agnes; big'ol_freeper; ...
ping
3 posted on 02/21/2003 11:17:46 AM PST by madfly
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To: EBUCK; Eustace; eskimo; editor-surveyor; EternalVigilance; Ethan_Allen; EverOnward; ...
ping
4 posted on 02/21/2003 11:18:14 AM PST by madfly
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To: Iowa Granny; Iscool; It'salmosttolate; Issaquahking; INSENSITIVE GUY; JackelopeBreeder; ...
ping
5 posted on 02/21/2003 11:18:57 AM PST by madfly
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To: madfly
Judges should be forced to take IQ tests!
6 posted on 02/21/2003 11:36:53 AM PST by AuntB (Support our troops!)
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To: madfly
Aren't these trees already burned and dead or unlikely to survive? That's what I read, I thought. So what's the big deal?

Enviral Judicial think: Let the forest burn because a bulldozer might dig up a piece of ground as it puts a fireline around a raging inferno. Let dead trees stand because we don't want anybody to make a profit.

Land of the free...yeah, right.

7 posted on 02/21/2003 11:39:41 AM PST by hattend
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To: madfly
Posting to latest....thanks for the ping.
8 posted on 02/21/2003 11:58:05 AM PST by EBUCK (FIRE!....rounds downrange! http://www.azfire.org)
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To: madfly
Education: University of Oregon (B.S. 1967); Hastings College of Law (J.D. 1973).

Judge Haggerty was appointed a United States District Court Judge for the District of Oregon by President Clinton on March 28, 1994.

9 posted on 02/21/2003 12:00:47 PM PST by yoe
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To: EBUCK; madfly
It's up and it should be known that I'm now prepared to start filling the site up with all the stuff you send. Move went well and we're just about settled in.
10 posted on 02/21/2003 12:04:48 PM PST by EBUCK (FIRE!....rounds downrange! http://www.azfire.org)
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To: yoe
Can't have it both ways. Either judges rule on the law or personal feelings. Right now the law is on the envirals side, too vague to really determine otherwise.

Need some changes in the laws.
11 posted on 02/21/2003 12:06:39 PM PST by EBUCK (FIRE!....rounds downrange! http://www.azfire.org)
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To: *Enviralists
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list
12 posted on 02/21/2003 12:12:53 PM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Ideas have consequences)
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To: yoe
Judge Haggerty was appointed a United States District Court Judge for the District of Oregon by President Clinton on March 28, 1994.

I guess no further explanation is necessary.

13 posted on 02/21/2003 12:25:26 PM PST by TonyWojo
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To: EBUCK
Another Liberal Enviro-Wacko judge that Clinton snuck past the Republicans. They're now being repaid for their "kindness" by having all their judges blocked by the evil Dash-hole. (May he be a crispy critter in his next life).
14 posted on 02/21/2003 1:15:39 PM PST by holyscroller (Why are Liberal female media types always ugly to boot?)
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To: TonyWojo
This is the kind of thing that will lead to Oregon voting Republican in 2004. Gore beat out Bush by less than 1% in 2000, and Bush carried two districts (Hooley's and DeFazio's) with Democratic Representatives. The liberal Hooley may retire rather than face a tough race in 2004, so we need to recruit a good candidate for her Salem-based district. And DeFazio is pretty much a Socialist, and recently introduced a bill to repeal the Iraq Use of Force Resolution (see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/836733/posts), so he should be beatable as well, although he's been around forever. The key to picking up those two very winnable seats is recruitment and aggressive campaigning, pointing out how out-of-touch liberal Democrats are with Oregonians outside Portland.

Can any Oregonians tell me who's going to challenge Ron Wyden for the Senate in 2004? He's a Portland liberal who could be vulnerable as well. Has Kevin Mannix expressed interest in the job?
15 posted on 02/21/2003 1:27:11 PM PST by AuH2ORepublican (Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.)
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To: madfly
Instead, he said the Forest Service could have easily completed a public review so the Malheur logging could proceed legally.

If the trees weren't useless by the time the review was done the marxist would appeal until they were.

I hope everyone is sitting down...A Humboldt County jury found one of the lizard like bimbo tree sitters guilty of trespassing on PL property. She was taken out of the tree by climbers. I'm sure she will sue PL for harassment and a jury somewhere else will award her millions. I heard there are 25 tree sitters on PL property.

16 posted on 02/21/2003 1:28:51 PM PST by tubebender (?)
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To: madfly
This is exactly why the Republicans need to grow a pair, pull out all the stops, and push Estrada through and other non-legislating judges through.

Then they can start repealing some of the asinine laws used by the enviro-nazis to thwart responsible land use.

17 posted on 02/21/2003 1:44:45 PM PST by jimt
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To: madfly; All
FWIW, when FR is down, I'll be lurking here:

http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9089
18 posted on 02/21/2003 2:19:33 PM PST by backhoe
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To: jimt
BTTT
19 posted on 02/21/2003 3:41:24 PM PST by hattend
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To: AuH2ORepublican
Next time some fool says there is no difference between R`s and D`s remember what this super liberal brain dead judge decided. And they wonder here in Oregon why times are tough. Byby Bill thinks Texas is looking better and better
20 posted on 02/21/2003 10:13:24 PM PST by bybybill (It`s just for the fish and then the children)
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