An Oregon timber company that is logging burned timber on roadless national forest land in southwest Oregon has become the first to contest a federal judge's decision putting many such lands off-limits to logging and other development.
Silver Creek Timber Co. of Merlin filed notice Thursday saying it would appeal the ruling. The company's attorney, Scott Horngren of Portland, said he also planned to ask U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte to clarify whether her ruling affects the company's logging projects in southwest Oregon.
The cutting in the Siskiyou National Forest, which is ongoing, targets trees killed by the 2002 Biscuit Fire. But there is disagreement whether the judge meant for her ruling to halt the logging.
Environmental groups and Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who were on the winning side of the ruling, say the logging should stop now that the judge reinstituted a 2001 Clinton administration rule putting roadless lands off-limits to cutting.
But the U.S. Forest Service, which oversees the cutting, argues the logging should not be stopped by the ruling. Federal attorneys filed a notice with the court Friday saying they do not believe the cutting is affected because it was approved before the ruling was issued.
However, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth on Friday ordered all agency offices not to approve any new activities that would violate the 2001 roadless rule.
The Bush administration last year replaced the 2001 rule with a new version requiring governors to submit a petition if they want roadless areas in their states protected. But the judge threw out that new version when she resurrected the 2001 rule Wednesday.
Horngren said Silver Creek filed the notice of an appeal because, if the judge did intend to stop the logging in southwest Oregon, the company wants to contest that decision.The Oregonian
