I don't have a scanner or a subscription so had to type this. Please excuse any errors.
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From The Lewiston Morning Tribune, Lewiston, Id 02 13 07 (lmtribune.com)
By Jeff Barnard - Associated Press
Grant's Pass, ore - Big trees that survived a wildfire on the Umatilla National Forest in southeastern Wa must be left standing pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging the decision to cut them for timber a federal appeals court ruled Monday (2/12/07).
A three judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals found that US District judge Suko in Spokane erred when he failed to grant a preliminary injunction halting logging on 9,423 acres of salvage timer sales in an area burned by the 2005 School Fire.
The appeals court agreed with conservation groups that a prohibition against logging "live trees" larger than 21 inches in diameter, known as the Eastside Screens, applies to all trees that are not deay, even if the Forest Service has decided they will be dead soon.
Neither the National Forest Management Act, nor the local forest plan defines the term "live trees" so the common meaning that they are all trees that have not yet died applies, wrote Judge Susan Graber. " The Forest Service is fee, of course, to amend the Eastside Screens to allow logging of dying trees," the judge wrote, "unless and until it does so, there is no basis to adopt its proposed definition."
The East Side Screens were adopted on nine Northwest national forests east of the Cascade Range in 1994 to protect old growth forests and the species that live in them while a comprehensive management plan was being developed. ...
About a third of the trees sold for logging after the School Fie have been cut, including live trees that would have been protected by a temporary restraining order said Mike Petersen, executive director of the Lands Council in Spokane, the lead plaintiff... "The agencies are looking for any excuse they can to log these big trees," said Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild, another plaintiff in the case. "Salvage was the one loophole that they had on these Eastside Screens." "They stretched the rule beyond recognition, taking trees that were damaged but certainly not dead. Any tree that has lived 300 years out there has survived fires before and can survive fires again, but my not survived the chainsaw..."
Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group, said the ruling pointed out the need to revise the Eastside Screens. "When we have judges in San Fancisco second guessing trained professional foresters on the determination if a tree is going to live after a catastrophic wildfire, it is crazy," said West. "If we wait any longer, there is going to be no value left in this salvage potential ..."
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Comment: Once again the tree huggers prevent salvage. I like the hypocrisy of Mr. Heiken "The agencies are looking for any excuse they can to log these big trees," Seems to me the tree huggers are the ones grabbing at any straw. That fire was a raging and fast moving fire, crowning in many spots.
I posted last year (2006) that I had seen log trucks loaded with salvage coming through town from that fire. I found out later that that was salvage off of private owned plots. From the gist of the article, it seems that logging did at least start on the National Forest .
Harry K
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From The Lewiston Morning Tribune, Lewiston, Id 02 13 07 (lmtribune.com)
By Jeff Barnard - Associated Press
Grant's Pass, ore - Big trees that survived a wildfire on the Umatilla National Forest in southeastern Wa must be left standing pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging the decision to cut them for timber a federal appeals court ruled Monday (2/12/07).
A three judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals found that US District judge Suko in Spokane erred when he failed to grant a preliminary injunction halting logging on 9,423 acres of salvage timer sales in an area burned by the 2005 School Fire.
The appeals court agreed with conservation groups that a prohibition against logging "live trees" larger than 21 inches in diameter, known as the Eastside Screens, applies to all trees that are not deay, even if the Forest Service has decided they will be dead soon.
Neither the National Forest Management Act, nor the local forest plan defines the term "live trees" so the common meaning that they are all trees that have not yet died applies, wrote Judge Susan Graber. " The Forest Service is fee, of course, to amend the Eastside Screens to allow logging of dying trees," the judge wrote, "unless and until it does so, there is no basis to adopt its proposed definition."
The East Side Screens were adopted on nine Northwest national forests east of the Cascade Range in 1994 to protect old growth forests and the species that live in them while a comprehensive management plan was being developed. ...
About a third of the trees sold for logging after the School Fie have been cut, including live trees that would have been protected by a temporary restraining order said Mike Petersen, executive director of the Lands Council in Spokane, the lead plaintiff... "The agencies are looking for any excuse they can to log these big trees," said Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild, another plaintiff in the case. "Salvage was the one loophole that they had on these Eastside Screens." "They stretched the rule beyond recognition, taking trees that were damaged but certainly not dead. Any tree that has lived 300 years out there has survived fires before and can survive fires again, but my not survived the chainsaw..."
Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group, said the ruling pointed out the need to revise the Eastside Screens. "When we have judges in San Fancisco second guessing trained professional foresters on the determination if a tree is going to live after a catastrophic wildfire, it is crazy," said West. "If we wait any longer, there is going to be no value left in this salvage potential ..."
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Comment: Once again the tree huggers prevent salvage. I like the hypocrisy of Mr. Heiken "The agencies are looking for any excuse they can to log these big trees," Seems to me the tree huggers are the ones grabbing at any straw. That fire was a raging and fast moving fire, crowning in many spots.
I posted last year (2006) that I had seen log trucks loaded with salvage coming through town from that fire. I found out later that that was salvage off of private owned plots. From the gist of the article, it seems that logging did at least start on the National Forest .
Harry K
