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Federal judge cites insufficient Forest Service
analysis
by Will Sands
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| A thick curtain of clouds moves
over a burned hillside near Missionary Ridge east of Durango
on Monday. Last Friday, a federal judge issued a preliminary
injunction on salvage logging in the burn area until impacts
on widllife can be assessed./Photo by Todd Newcomer. |
A federal judge has blocked the salvage logging of Missionary
Ridge, and local conservationists are celebrating a major victory.
On the other side of the table, the San Juan National Forest is
disappointed in the recent court order and is contemplating its
next move.
Last Friday, a federal judge officially halted the massive logging
operation scheduled to begin this week on the Missionary Ridge
burn area immediately northwest of Durango. Judge Zita Weinshienk
signed a preliminary injunction in response to a recent lawsuit
by local conservation organization Colorado Wild. The order was
based on the likelihood that the lawsuit would succeed because
of insufficient analysis of wildlife impacts by the local Forest
Service. The preliminary injunction has halted any logging on
Missionary Ridge until the case can be fully heard in court.
“I think it’s a very significant victory,”
said Geoff Hickox, the attorney representing Colorado Wild. “Preliminary
injunctions are often very difficult to obtain, and they often
create significant momentum for the case.”
In mid-July of last year, San Juan National Forest Supervisor
Mark Stiles announced his approval of the logging of dead and
dying timber in the Missionary Ridge burn area. The decision called
for the speedy harvest of 13.4 million board feet of timber on
approximately 3,388 acres. A combination of ground-based, helicopter
and skyline logging systems would be used to log pine, spruce,
fir and aspen. Much of the logging would have resulted in clear-cuts.
The Forest Service admitted that the timber sale was on a fast
track in an effort to harvest the timber before its value is lost
to deterioration.
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| Missionary Ridge looms over
County Road 246 east of Durango along Florida Road. The Forest
Service had approved massive salvage logging and often clear
cutting of the burn area./Photo by Todd Newcomer. |
However, opponents charged that the fast track led to sloppy
analysis and neglect for public concerns. Consequently, a coalition,
headed up by Colorado Wild and including the San Juan Citizens’
Alliance, the Wilderness Society, the Pine River Valley Nordic
Ski Club, and private citizens appealed the decision Sept. 2.
When the Forest Service rejected the appeal, Colorado Wild filed
suit Dec. 23, citing unacceptable impacts to wildlife, water quality
and erosion that would arise from logging.
Jeff Berman, Colorado Wild executive director, commented, “The
Bush administration Forest Service is spending our tax dollars
pushing massive, unsustainable logging operations like this that
don’t protect homes from fire, only provide jobs for a short
period of time and harm water quality for municipalities like
Bayfield.”
When Judge Weinshienk signed the preliminary injunction she looked
only at the first of Colorado Wild’s claim – that
the Forest Service had not adequately analyzed impacts to wildlife.
Concluding that Colorado Wild has a “substantial”
likelihood of winning its lawsuit on the wildlife issue, Judge
Weinshienk chose to not rule on water quality impacts and faulty
analysis issues at this time.A0
“We were able to persuade the court that the Forest Service
had taken a shortcut and approved logging that would have significant
impacts without adequately monitoring threats to wildlife,”
Hickox said.
Berman added that the absence of wildlife monitoring is nothing
new for logging in the San Juan National Forest. “This decision
is significant throughout the San Juan National Forest as a whole
because it is the judicial branch of the government telling the
Forest Service that they have been negligent in their duties to
ensure protection of wildlife on this forest for the last 20 years,”
he said.
Comments on the preliminary injunction from the Forest Service
have been brief because the matter involves litigation. However,
Dave Dallison, timber program leader for the San Juan National
Forest, said that the agency is disappointed and that the taxpayer
will lose money as a result of the delay. Dallison has said that
the Forest Service had hoped that logging would begin on Missionary
Ridge last fall in order to harvest the timber before its value
is lost to deterioration.
“It’s kind of a big deal in this case because of
the deterioration of the timber,” Dallison said. “With
Missionary Ridge, any delay is costing the taxpayer money.”
Dallison also referenced a prepared Forest Service statement
on the decision, which stated, “To retain the timber value
of the wood fiber, the salvage sale must occur sooner than later.
The burned aspen trees will retain quality as wood fiber for about
two more years, but the conifers will lose more and more value
the longer they stand and may have little value for sawlogs after
the summer of 2004.”
Berman countered that according to his read of the judge’s
decision, the Forest Service may as well write off any logging
of conifers on Missionary Ridge. He argued that because of the
preliminary injunction, the Forest Service must now conduct a
thorough wildlife analysis of the Missionary Ridge burn area.
“It would take at least one year to get population data,”
Berman said. “To get an understanding for trends, you would
have to get a data over at least two years.”
Berman added that Colorado Wild is not the antagonist in this
case, but said that faulty analysis by the San Juan National Forest
is to blame. He noted that of all the salvage sales in Colorado,
Missionary Ridge was the only one to inadequately assess impacts
and the only one that drew major opposition.
“The San Juan National Forest’s own negligence over
the last 20 years is to blame for this,” he said. “You
simply don’t undertake logging without assessing impacts
to wildlife.”
The Forest Service now has several options for dealing with the
preliminary injunction. It can either appeal the decision, abandon
the sale or pursue a settlement. Dallison said the agency has
yet to make a decision.
“There are a number of options including appeal that are
being considered,” he said.
Judge Weinshienk’s decision, Colorado Wild’s Complaint
for Injunctive Relief initiating the lawsuit, and related court
filings are all available online at www.coloradowild.org/fwc/.
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