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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
www.seattlep-i.com
Judge allows timber company to log to prevent 'financial
harm'
Monday,
August 21, 2000
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEND,
Ore. -- A U.S. district judge has denied an environmental
group's request for a temporary restraining order against
a company seeking to log a timber sale in the Ochoco National
Forest.
The
Portland-based Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project of the
League of Wilderness Defenders claims logging of the Black
Bear sale in the Paulina District will severely affect
soil compaction and wildlife corridors.
It
was seeking the restraining order against Prairie City-based
D.R. Johnson Lumber Co. while U.S. District Judge Garr
King considered a larger lawsuit filed by the group in
April challenging the Black Bear sale and two other timber
sales in the national forest.
In
denying the order, King on Tuesday said a U.S. Forest
Service environmental assessment shows the ecological
impact to the area from logging does not outweigh the
financial harm the restraining order would cause to the
company.
D.R.
Johnson can now complete logging of the sale before the
judge even decides whether the three sales should occur,
according to Jennifer Schemm, the attorney representing
the Biodiversity Project.
She
said a hearing on a motion for a summary judgment will
be held Oct. 2.
"We're
just hoping it won't all be logged by the time the judge
makes a decision in that hearing," Schemm said. "It's
frustrating."
Chuck
Burley, of the Northwest Forestry Association, a timber
industry advocate, said the case is significant for other
timber companies fighting environmental groups over logging
on public lands.
He
said it's the first time in recent memory a judge has
decided the financial risk to a timber company outweighs
environmental concerns raised by conservation groups.
"(King)
said environmental protection is in the public's interest,
but so is the economic viability of the companies,"
Burley said.
© 2000 The Associated Press.
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