Court of appeals reverses position on forest clearing

COEUR d’ALENE — A decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Wednesday reversed its prior opinion, and could become a landmark for logging in national forests.

The court ruled it had made errors earlier, and paved the way for removal of dead and dying timber.

The Lands Council and Wild West Institute filed a suit against the U.S. Forest Service, seeking an injunction halting the Mission Brush Project in Boundary County. It is one of numerous projects held up by litigation in North Idaho, said Dave O’Brien, operations staff officer for the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.

“This decision has implications for every one of those projects,” O’Brien said.

He said decision will likely have national ramifications and lead to improvements in the health and safety of forests, but the matter will return to district court before it is decided permanently.

The suit, originally filed in district court, contended the Forest Service failed to comply with the National Forest Management Act in approving the project, which included selective logging of 3,829 acres in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.

District court denied the injunction, but was initially overturned by the appeals court.

“The 9th Circuit reversed itself,” O’Brien said.

The battle has been ongoing since 2004, when the Forest Service approved the project.

“It certainly is (a setback),” said Mike Petersen, executive director of the Lands Council.

He said the issue revolves around whose science should believed in determining the status of forests, particularly the health of old-growth trees.

“If the Forest Service would make the commitment not to cut trees over 21 inches, we would have common ground,” Petersen said. “They claim a tree is starting to die, even after a wildfire when experts said the tree is not going to die.”

The court said the Forest Service science was appropriate, O’Brien said.

Boundary County, City of Bonners Ferry, City of Moyie Springs, Everhart Logging, Inc., and Regehr Logging, Inc. also intervened in the suit on behalf of the Forest Service.

If the injunction had stood, it would have made it impossible for the Forest Service to ever have a timber sale because of the “unachievable standards they were trying to get to,” said Dan Dinning, a Boundary County commissioner.

“This reaffirms the Forest Service is doing correct analyses,” he said. “They ruled more standards had been in place than necessary.”

The decision is extremely important to the county’s economy, which still has several operating mills, Dinning said.

It will also make forests safer by removing fuel that could feed large wildfires.

“I hope it will allow the Forest Service to manage unhealthy forests,” he said. “Nobody wants to hurt the environment.”