Court denies Bush bid to undercut old growth forests

In a victory for environmental groups, a federal court has declared illegal a Bush administration decision to eliminate safeguards for old growth forests and the rare plants and animals that inhabit them. The ruling handed down on Jan. 9 by US District Court Judge Marsha Pechman vacates the administration's decision to eliminate the "Survey and Manage" standard of the Northwest Forest Plan. Her decision reinstates the standard and requires that all timber sales on federal forests in western Washington, western Oregon and northwestern California comply with the standard. The judge ordered a halt to 144 timber sales in California, Oregon and Washington that might jeopardize about 300 species of animals and plants. The Survey and Manage standard of the Northwest Forest Plan requires federal agencies to survey an old growth area for rare plants and wildlife before allowing logging or other development activities and, if found, to modify their plans to reduce the risk of extinction. The requirement applies only on federal lands. "Once again, the courts have insisted that the Forest Service use science rather than politics and favoritism to protect our northwest ecosystems," said Pete Frost of the Western Environmental Law Center. "We hope this ends the government's attempts to roll back the protections the Northwest Forest Plan affords some of our last remaining old growth forests." Frost says the Bush administration attempted to eliminate the Survey and Manage standard along with other safeguards as part of a settlement agreement with the logging industry over a lawsuit logging interests filed in 2001. Before a judge could rule on the merits of the case, the Bush administration agreed to the demands of the logging industry by removing the Survey and Manage standard. "The Bush administration's back room deal with the timber industry was thrown out," said Doug Heiken of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, one of the plaintiff groups. "The decision to eliminate protection for old growth wildlife is enjoined, and now the Forest Service and BLM [Bureau of Land Management] must take the common sense approach by looking before logging." The rare and uncommon species protected by the survey standard live primarily in old growth forests. Of the 144 timber sales planned by the Forest Service and the BLM implicated in the ruling, one-half would have logged old growth forests. "This is a huge victory for people who value wildlife and the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest," said Rolf Skar, campaign director of the Siskiyou Project, based in southern Oregon. "It's time for the Bush administration to recognize that Northwesterners value our natural heritage and want to see it permanently protected." "If the Bush administration wants to avoid doing pre-logging surveys for wildlife, they should stop cutting old growth forests," said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Protecting all old growth is a move supported by a broad majority of the public." "This ruling helps preserve an important system of checks and balances that helps protect our old growth forests for wildlife, clean water and future generations," said Dave Werntz, science director for Conservation Northwest. "There are hundreds of species that are essential to clean air, clean water and the health of old growth forests. The Survey and Manage program, developed by some of the best scientific thinkers in the region, is a global model of conservation because it recognizes this important connection," said Randi Spivak of the American Lands Alliance. The plaintiffs in the case include: the Environmental Protection Information Center, Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Oregon Natural Resources Council, American Lands Alliance, Siskiyou Regional Education Project, Klamath Forest Alliance, Umpqua Watersheds, Center for Biological Diversity, Northcoast Environmental Center, Gifford Pinchot Task Force and Conservation Northwest, formerly the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance. They are represented by the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center and the Western Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit public interest environmental law firm. In March 2004, the Bush administration eliminated the Survey and Manage standard–a central part of the Northwest Forest Plan since it was adopted nearly 10 years earlier. The plan was declared to be legal in 1995 in part because the Survey and Manage standard gave federal officials some assurance that wildlife in the forests would be adequately protected from logging. A fundamental principle of the Survey and Manage rules is to protect habitat for threatened wildlife to prevent the animals and birds from becoming endangered. The Northwest Forest Plan was adopted in 1994 to protect spotted owls, wild salmon and over 1,000 other species that call the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest home. The plan applies only to federal lands, and was supposed to provide enough wildlife habitat on federal lands so that private forests could be managed with fewer restrictions. Public opinion polls have repeatedly demonstrated that a majority of voters in Oregon and Washington support protecting all remaining mature and old growth forest in their states.