Federal judge's timber ruling hits Rogue, Siskiyou forests hard
Copyright 2000 Associated Press
December 12, 2000
MEDFORD, Ore. - About half the Northwest timber sales temporarily blocked by a federal judge's ruling in Seattle are in southern Oregon.
The ruling to protect salmon habitat affects 45 timber sales in the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests and about the same number in the Bureau of Land Management's Medford District, said Jan Hasselman, a Seattle attorney for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.
Earthjustice sued on behalf of several environmental groups as well as the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein ruled last Thursday that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to follow regulations for the federal timber sales in Oregon, Washington and Northern California.
The ruling prevents NMFS from permitting the sales to proceed in areas that affect salmon protected under the Endangered Species Act. It is not known how many board feet of timber are affected.
Some of the sales haven't been awarded while others already have been harvested, Hasselman said. "They are all over the map," he said.