Clinton Forest Protection Failing, Groups Say

The legal action against the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management could slow the rate of timber sales in the region.

The Northwest Forest Plan requires federal agencies to search for and protect endangered and threatened species in the path of logging. But the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have not lived up to the letter or the spirit of the Plan, the groups charge.

The lawsuit complains that the federal agencies have not completed surveys of wildlife across 24 million acres as required by the Plan, according to Mike Axline, director of the Eugene, Oregon-based Western Environmental Law Center representing the conservation groups.

"The Forest Service is not following the law," Axline said.

"If the government would stop breaking their promises and just follow the requirements of the Northwest Forest Plan, fewer of our ancient forests would be clearcut, more forest creatures would be safe, more wild salmon would survive and spawn, and our drinking water would be cleaner," said Doug Heiken, western Oregon field representative of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, one of the plaintiff groups.

More than 1,000 streams in forests covered by the Plan have been identified by regulatory agencies as not meeting water quality standards since the Plan was adopted.

But the two defendant agencies have stated in their Environmental Impact Statement that there would be "zero" risk of extirpation of species under the Plan, and that water quality would be "maintained and improved."

The lawsuit was filed July 8 in the same court which upheld the legality of the President's Forest Plan. In his December 1994 ruling, Judge William Dwyer said the plan met only the bare minimum requirements for protecting endangered species. "Monitoring is central to the plan's validity. If it is not funded, or not done for any reason, the plan will have to be reconsidered."

The lawsuit charges that, citing the need to cut costs, a 1996 joint directive by Forest Service and BLM officials states that site-specific surveys need not be conducted in most of the habitat types of vegetation communities associated with the red tree vole. The vole is a small rodent that is a main food source for the northern spotted owl, a primary species of concern under the Northwest Forest Plan.

There are about 6.2 million acres of red tree vole habitat within the area covered by the Plan. The 1996 directive excludes roughly 5.5 million acres from survey requirements. The directive also excludes all of California from the survey requirement, although the red tree vole has been found in California, the lawsuit states.

In five of the National Forests within the range of the northern spotted owl the volume of timber sales in Reserves designated under the Plan was greater than the volume outside Reserves during the 1997 fiscal year, the suit charges. In two of those National Forests, over 90 percent of the timber cut came from Reserves.

The monitoring work of the Regional Ecosystem Office (REO) has also been inadequate, the suit alleges. The first document on implementation monitoring was not issued by the REO until March, 1997. The "Results of the FY 1996 (Pilot Year) Implementation Monitoring Program" reviewed 40 of the timber sales that had been sold since the Plan was adopted. The document asserts that the Forest Service and the BLM achieved 97% compliance with the Plan, the report failed to examine timber sales other than the 40 that were selected for the report, or any land management activities other than timber sales.

The Plan requires the Forest Service and the BLM to provide for "retention of old-growth fragments in watersheds where little remains." But, the suit alleges, the REO issued a memo in 1997 interpreting these provisions as including trees as young as 80 years old, thus reducing the number of watersheds subject to the requirement and increasing the amount of old growth cutting allowed in watersheds that are subject to the requirement.

A spokesperson for the Forest Service's Northwest regional office defends her agency's actions. "We're implementing the plan as designed," Patty Burel stated.

Industry spokespeople said the timber community is angry and discouraged because many mills in the area have closed in recent years cue to cutbacks on logging in National Forests. Frank Gladics, president of the Independent Forest Products Association, a Beaverton, Oregon based association made up of 60 family-owned sawmills, said the lawsuit could reduce logging still further in the region.