U.S. Court Rejects Timber Industry Claim on Bird Habitat

***********************************************

WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

***********************************************

Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

6/19/96

In a victory of sorts, a U.S. appeals court has blocked some timber sales

in the Pacific Northwest based on threats to the marbled murrelet, a

seabird. About 4,000 acres of ancient Douglas firs and Western hemlocks in

coastal Oregon and Washington will be saved from industrial forestry.

However, "Salvage logging" (logging of largely old growth, natural stands

to remove dead and dying trees; really logging without having to follow

environmental laws) continues across much of the United States.

g.b

*******************************

RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Court rejects timber industry claim on bird habitat

June 15, 1996

Web posted at: 12:15 P.M. EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuter) -- In a major defeat for the timber industry, a U.S.

appeals court Friday backed the Clinton administration's move to block

timber sales where the marbled murrelet, a threatened seabird, lives in the

Pacific Northwest.

The industry had filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service, saying that

Congress had cleared the way for cutting trees where the bird lived when it

mandated timber sales in old- growth forests in Oregon and Washington last

year as part of a logging provision attached to a disaster relief bill.

In the so-called salvage logging rider, Congress mandated the cutting of

dead and dying trees and the resumption of old-growth timber sales that had

been suspended in 1990 to protect wildlife habitat. But Congress said trees

should not be chopped where threatened or endangered birds were "known to

be nesting."

Timber companies had challenged the scientific [Marbled murrelet] standard

that the government had used to prove marbled murrelets were nesting in the

area.

Reversing a lower court's decision, a three-judge panel on the Ninth

Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the evidence the Forest Service used

was good enough.

"This court has chosen science over the pseudo-science of the timber

industry," Assistant Attorney General Lois Schiffer said.

The ruling is expected to save about 4,000 acres of ancient Douglas firs

and Western hemlocks in coastal Oregon and Washington, according to the

Justice Department.

"If these trees had been logged, the bird would have gone extinct in Oregon

and Washington," said Kristen Boyles, an attorney for the Sierra Club Legal

Defense Fund, which backed the Forest Service in the case.

The appeals court also overturned a lower court ruling that the government

was required to allow certain timber sales that had been rejected by their

original purchaser or stopped by courts.

The government is now free to block those timber sales, which could have

affected areas where endangered salmon swim, the Justice Department said.

Boyles said she hoped the court rulings would spur Congress to repeal the

salvage logging measure, which environmentalists considered their biggest

loss last year.

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###

This document is a PHOTOCOPY and all recipients should seek permission from

the source for reprinting. You are encouraged to utilize this information

for personal campaign use; including writing letters, organizing campaigns

and forwarding. All efforts are made to provide accurate, timely pieces;

though ultimate responsibility for verifying all information rests with the

reader. Check out our Gaia Forest Conservation Archives at URL=

http://forests.org/gaia.html

Networked by:

Ecological Enterprises

Email (best way to contact)-> gbarry@forests.org