Foresters at the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest will take a broader look at the cumulative impacts of logging in the region on sensitive species, following orders last year from a federal judge.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service on Friday released its draft plan to consider how much habitat is available before and after logging projects for species such as the red-shouldered hawk, goshawk and the American marten.
The agency said it has developed new models to better evaluate the impacts of logging on those species.
The new environmental review comes after a federal judge last year blocked six timber sales on 22,000 acres of land in the northern Wisconsin national forest.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman of Milwaukee ruled that the Forest Service didn't take into account the broader impacts on wildlife and the accumulative impacts of logging over time and across the region.
Adelman made the ruling in a lawsuit filed by the Habitat Education Center, a Madison-based environmental group, in 2003. The group said the sales violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Adelman, who imposed an injunction on the timber sales, said logging plans can't be assessed in isolation but must be considered with all other logging in the area.
Rather than fight the judge's decision, Forest Service officials instead reworked their environmental review in hopes the new plan will satisfy Adelman's concern.
"We have come up with a (plan) that will take a serious look at the impacts from our planned (timber) projects as well as the impacts of past and future projects across the landscape, not just at the sale level," said Anne Archie, forest supervisor.
The draft proposal will be open for public comment for 45 days. Archie said it's not clear what point the plan will be given to the judge to see if he's satisfied enough to lift the injunction.
Forest industry officials have said the lawsuit threatens to delay current logging and slow future plans because of the increased time and cost to the Forest Service for the extra analysis.
But the group that filed the lawsuit said the Forest Service's new process still comes to the old conclusion -- that cumulative impacts of logging in the area won't harm the species. Dave Zaber, resource ecologist for Habitat Education Center, says that conclusion is wrong.
"What the Forest Service is putting out today is like a Swiss cheese with many more holes than substance. It's not the 'hard look' that is required by federal law," Zaber said in a prepared statement.
The timber sales in question include 8,800 acres near Lakewood in Oconto County and 7,740 acres in Forest County. Another sale, 5,600 acres near Clam Lake in Ashland County, will be handled in a different draft plan but is nearly identical to the other two, Archie said.
The draft proposal does not include a decision on whether to proceed with logging in those areas or whether to change how the logging is conducted. A final court ruling on the plan is expected later this year.Duluth News Tribune
