Judge Settles Pacific Northwest Suit to Save Owls
12/20/99
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Title: Judge Settles Suit To Save Owls
Source: The Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 20, 1999
Byline: JOHN HUGHES
WASHINGTON (AP) A settlement of a lawsuit filed to save a rare
species of owl has halted enough logging to build a small city
but the larger fight is far from over.
Environmentalists say they will aggressively push the Clinton
administration to protect more ancient forests in the Pacific
Northwest.
Timber industry officials, skeptical the settlement solves
anything, say they will try to make sure the stalled timber sales
are released sometime next year.
The Clinton administration acknowledged that timber battles will
continue but said Friday's approval by U.S. District Judge William
Dwyer was a victory for the Northwest Forest Plan. That 1994
administration document attempted to balance timber harvests and
ecosystem protections in the Pacific Northwest.
``The Forest Plan works,'' Agriculture Undersecretary Jim Lyons
said. ``We are now back on track toward full implementation of the
plan.''
Dwyer's six-page ruling dismisses a lawsuit filed last year by
13 environmental groups and accepts the settlement the government
and environmentalists announced last month.
The Northwest Forest Plan, written to settle timber wars over
the threatened northern spotted owl, broadly dictates the level of
logging and other activities on Forest Service and Bureau of Land
Management land in western Washington, western Oregon and northern
California.
The plan is supposed to ensure environmental protections in the
region while allowing a minimal level of logging.
It also requires the agencies to survey for about 80 rare
species of fungi and plants before approving logging or other
``ground-disturbing activities.''
Environmentalists sued when the agencies failed to do required
surveys in time.
Preliminary rulings in August by Dwyer and subsequent voluntary
actions by the agencies put more than 250 million board feet of
federal timber sales on hold. That much wood would build frames for
more than 19,000 homes.
The settlement requires the Forest Service and Bureau of Land
Management to conduct 80-odd surveys for rare species as required
under the Forest Plan.
But the deal also allows federal agencies to drop surveys for
nine species that are more common than previously thought and to
quit surveys for 13 other hard-to-find species if they are not
discovered after one year.
The focus now turns to a proposed 492-page amendment to the
Forest Plan that details how the agencies will look for mollusks,
fungi and other little life forms across 24 million acres of public
land.
Environmentalists want to use the amendment to change parts of
the Forest Plan that they say allow harvests of 1.1 million acres
of old-growth forests.
``That's unacceptable to us,'' said Doug Heiken of the Oregon
Natural Resources Council, which initiated the suit over the
surveys.
Timber officials want to change the amendment so that it demands
fewer surveys and requires them to be done quicker so the timber
harvest can go forward.