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Lawsuit challenges timber sales The Williams-based Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, along with four other environmental groups, has gone to court to try to stop 25 Forest Service timber sales in Oregon. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, includes 16 sales on the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests. The other sales are in the Mount Hood and Willamette national forests. The environmental groups say the timber sales will harm the habitat of coho salmon, which are federally protected. The lawsuit also challenges the agency's replacement volume program which provides timber for sales that were canceled to protect threatened marbled murrelets. Forest Service officials were not available for comment. In addition to the Wildlands Center, other plaintiffs include the Salem-based Santiam Watershed Guardians, Cascadia Wildlands Project of Eugene, Umpqua Watersheds of Roseburg and American Lands Alliance in Washington, D.C. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA