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Judge OKs harvesting felled logs By Paul Fattig A federal court judge in Seattle is expected today to sign an order releasing more than 2 million board feet of felled timber on two Bureau of Land Management timber sales near Ruch. In the two-page modification of her Dec. 7 injunction affecting nearly 180 federal timber sales in the Pacific Northwest, U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein would allow the harvest of downed logs on seven timber sales, including the Isabella and Poor Bishop sales in the BLM�s Medford District. BLM officials had halted all logging activity on the two sales immediately following the Dec. 7 ruling, citing concern that any activity could violate the order. In that ruling, Rothstein found that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) failed to follow environmental regulations when it released 20 biological opinions that cleared the way for federal timber sales in Oregon, Washington and northern California. The ruling resulted from a lawsuit filed by the EarthJustice Legal Defense Fund on behalf of several environmental groups as well as the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen�s Association. The plaintiffs argued that the sales threatened salmon habitat. The modification already has been signed by attorneys representing the plaintiffs as well as defendant Department of Justice and defendant-intervenor American Forest Resource Council. Rothstein is expected to sign the order today, according to Mark Rutzick, attorney for the forest council. "Nothing in the order shall be construed to require defendant NMFS to suspend the challenged biological opinions and incidental take statements with respect to the completion of yarding, hauling and removal of downed timber in accordance with standard BLM or Forest Service contract procedures," reads the modification, which also names the seven sales. Steve Swanson, president of Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale, purchaser of the two sales, received a copy of the modification order signed by the attorneys Thursday afternoon. "We anticipate what we see today will come to pass," he said. "This will allow us to proceed with removing the downed timber." He estimates there are about 2 million board feet of timber on the ground in the two sales. Earlier BLM estimates had indicated about 2.5 million board feet. "This is real good news for the rest of our operation in Glendale," Swanson said. "Those logs will be consumed in the spring. They will be necessary and useful to us." If the logs were left on the ground, he added, "It would be a terrible waste of a valuable resource." BLM officials had been concerned that logs remaining on the ground come spring could begin cracking, rendering them useless as a commercial product. Since the logs are relatively small with an average diameter of only 13 inches, the logs would quickly dry out during dry weather, they warned. Once Rothstein releases the downed logs, the BLM will quickly issue go-to-work orders to Superior, allowing the firm to harvest the downed timber, said Dave Reed, the BLM�s district forester. The logs are still sound since they haven�t dried out, Reed said. The modification of the Dec. 7 order only allows helicopter harvesting of the downed timber and doesn�t permit a return to full-scale logging of the two sales, which originally contained about 15 million board feet, officials said. About 2 million board feet of timber had been removed from the sales prior to the original order. The earlier ruling had prevented NMFS from permitting the sales to proceed in areas that affect salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act. The goal of the lawsuit wasn�t to stop logging but to protect the fishery, said Glen Spain, spokesman for the PCFFA. The Isabella and Poor Bishop timber sales are among five active timber sales that have been suspended in the Medford District as a result of the original ruling. All told, the ruling affected some 45 sales in the BLM�s Medford District and about the same number on the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests. However, there are no active sales affected by the ruling on the two local forests. A similar ruling by Rothstein in the fall of 1999 also concluded that the NMFS was breaking the law by approving 27 timber sales in the Umpqua Basin. NMFS has appealed the 1999 ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.