***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
US
Lawsuit on Log Imports Over Pest Concerns
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
November
25, 1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
Several
US environmental groups are entering into a lawsuit to
stop
importation of possibly infested logs.
The lawsuit
challenges
new regulations of the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection
Service (APHIS-USDA), claiming new rules fail to
"evaluate
the impacts of introduced forest pests on forest
ecosystems,
human health, or regional economies." US forests have
frequently
been hard hit by introduced pests, and species of the
Northwest
forests, such as Douglas Fir, are in danger of being
devastated
as the chestnut and elm were in the Eastern US.
Forests
are more than short term profits; and while trees may be
renewable,
forests essentially (over a reasonable time span) are
not.
g.b.
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/**
list.forest: 66.0 **/
**
Topic: Lawsuit on Log Imports into US (fwd) **
**
Written 12:38 AM Nov 21, 1995 by
Jarmo.Saarikko@METLA.FI in
cdp:list.forest
**
From:
"Jarmo Saarikko (METLA)" <Jarmo.Saarikko@METLA.FI>
Subject: Lawsuit on Log Imports into US (fwd)
Subject:
Lawsuit Filed to Prevent Log Imports
PRESS
RELEASE
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For
More Information Contact:
David
Gordon, PERC, (415) 332-8200
Tim
McKay, NEC, (707) 822-6918
Joy Belsky,
ONRC, (503) 233-9001 ext. 216
Charlie
Tebbutt or Mike Axline, WELC, (503) 485-2471
November
14, 1995
Environmentalists
Act to Halt Log Imports
Lawsuit
filed to prevent introduction of exotic forest pests
and
loss of forest ecosystems
In a
move to protect the forests of the United States from exotic
insect
pests and plant diseases, environmentalists today filed a
lawsuit
to block importation of possibly infested logs into the
US. The
lawsuit, filed against the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection
Service (APHIS-USDA), challenges the adequacy of the
new
regulations that would allow infested logs to pass through US
ports.
The
lawsuit, which was filed by the Western Environmental Law
Center
(WELC) on behalf of a coalition of environmental groups in
Federal
Court in San Francisco, claims that APHIS failed to
evaluate
the impacts of introduced forest pests on forest
ecosystems,
human health, or regional economies.
Plaintiffs claim
that
APHIS was more concerned with international commerce than
protection
of America's forests.
The
three plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Oregon Natural Resources
Council
(ONRC), Northcoast Environmental Center, and Pacific
Environment
and Resources Center (PERC).
APHIS's
new regulations, which went into effect in August, allow
the
importation of foreign logs and wood products that have not
been
heat treated to kill all pests. These
logs can be
transported
in open trucks through forested regions and stored up
to two
months before being heat treated. In
December, a truckload
of
untreated wood chips from New Zealand spilled in a forest in
the
Oregon Cascades.
Scientists
voice concern. According to forest
scientists, these
new
regulations will allow virulent forest pests into America. The
United
States has a long history of forests being decimated by
introduced
pests. According to Dr. William
Denison, professor of
botany
at Oregon State University, "We can lose our magnificent
Northwest
forests if we allow the introduction of a disease that
eliminates
Douglas fir in the way that introduced diseases hit
chestnut
and elm in the east."
Native
tree species such as Douglas fir, hemlock, and ponderosa
pine
are vulnerable to these new pests.
"Not only will many pests
from
Russia, Chile, and New Zealand thrive in the temperate
climates
of the US, but they will be able to spread in the absence
of
their natural predators and of resistant tree species" said Joy
Belsky,
Ph.D., staff ecologist at ONRC.
"APHIS has not provided
the
safeguards needed to protect our forests or forest industries"
said
Belsky. "If pests that are hidden
under bark or deep in the
wood
are allowed to enter American forests, trees will die by the
millions. Forest-dependent species will lose their
habitats and
humans
will be exposed to widespread pesticide spraying. The
timber
industry should stand together with the environmental
community
in opposing this threat to America's forests."
The new
rules state that logs from Russia must be heat treated
before
shipment, but compliance with the regulations relies only
on the
word of exporters. "Corruption in
the Russian timber
industry
and Russian ports is widespread.
Expectations of
compliance
show an ignorance of the current situation in Russia,"
said
David Gordon, co-director of the Siberian Forests Protection
Project
at PERC.
According
to Mike Axline of WELC, attorneys for the plaintiffs,
"APHIS
did not disclose to the public the full extent of the risks
posed
by exotic pests. The failure to
disclose violated APHIS's
obligation
under the National Environmental Policy Act."
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