Officials cheer timber ruling

An appeals court’s landmark decision to remove dead and dying timber from Panhandle National Forest is good news for Boundary County’s economy.

For one, locally-based Everhart Logging and Regehr Logging will share in the select cutting of timber.

Jerry Everhart, owner of Everhart Logging for nearly 40 years, believes it will take more than six months to complete the timber sale. His company has begun building roads, and by winter, expects to begin harvesting timber.

The court’s ruling also could pave the way for more work in the national forest.

“Hopefully this will have some affect on the people who oppose it,” Everhart said.

That’s good news for county commissioner Dan Dinning, who was involved with the appeal.

“Timber dollars roll through a community seven times,” Dinning said. “For each dollar paid to individual employees, that dollar is spent seven times in the community.”

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco three weeks ago reversed its prior opinion, which 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 ruling was due to a suit filed by the Lands Council and Wild West Institute against the U.S. Forest Service, seeking an injunction halting the Mission Brush Project in Boundary County.

In essence, the Lands Council asked the court to act as a panel of scientists, which is not a proper role for a federal appellate court, according to the ruling.

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

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

Everhart and Regehr can begin logging when they are ready, said Linda McFaddan, Bonners Ferry District Ranger for the Panhandle National Forest.

“They’re looking at the economics and what the market is doing,” she said.

McFaddan also sees the ruling as positive for the local economy.

“It releases the existing two sales so they can continue to be worked,” she said. “There’s a considerable volume out there. It would be a benefit to the community.”