Groups pressure Forest Service to halt logging
Copyright © 2000 The Earth Times
December 9, 2000
By JASON TOPPING CONE
The United States Forest Service announced this week that it is halting 34 logging projects in seven national forest throughout the southeast.
Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia were host the logging projects. Logging in 21 areas of the Chattahoochee and Oconee National Forests in Georgia, 10 areas on the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee, five areas on the Bienville, Homochitto, and DeSoto National Forests in Mississippi along with seven others in the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas were all stopped.
The decisions follows a lawsuit filed by a host of environmental groups led by the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund in July. The environmental groups contended that if the Forest Service continued its manner of logging practices severe harm would be done to the forest species. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta had already concluded that the Forest Service.
"Clear cutting wipes out entire habitats for endangered animals," said Eric Huber, attorney for Earthjustice. "Road building and other logging activities further fragment habitat, cause soil erosion and other habitat degradation and can destroy entire rare bird nesting grounds and endangered fish habitat."
The Sierra Club, the John Muir Project of the Earth Island Institute, Wild South, Wild Alabama, Souther Appalachian Biodiversity Project, and Wildlaw were among some of the other groups that joined the suit.
"The Forest Service is supposed to be in the business of conserving our national treasures, not selling them off to the top bidders," said Rene Voss, a Sierra Club director.