Suit aims to restore timber contracts

SANDPOINT — A lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court Monday to force the federal government to honor timber sale and stewardship contracts it let prior to the government shutdown.

The suit was initiated by contract purchasers in Washington, Oregon and California, and joined by the American Forest Resource Council, which represents wood products manufacturing companies in those states, in addition to Idaho and Montana.

The suit asks a federal judge in Oregon to enjoin the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management from suspending contracts during the government shutdown.

Tom Partin, president of the Portland, Ore.-based resource council, said it makes “zero sense” for the cash-strapped government to shut down operations that pay millions of dollars into the U.S. Treasury.

Moreover, production facilities, loggers and truck drivers will suffer under the contract suspensions. The plaintiffs further argue that forest health will decline and the danger of wildfire will increase in the absence of fuel-reduction and hazard-mitigation contracts.

“Shutting down operations means these objectives won’t be met and things will get worse,” Partin said in a statement announcing the litigation.

Ann Forest Burns, a spokeswoman for the American Forest Resource Council, said the injunction would apply in Idaho and elsewhere if it’s approved.

“It would have the effect of a nationwide injunction,” Burns said on Tuesday.

A hearing on the proposed restraining order is set for Thursday in federal court in Medford, Ore.

The plaintiffs argue that the government, under contract law, cannot stop timber operations. Contractors operate under harvest plans that have already been approved and work can continue unless critical inspections are necessary.

The shutdown’s impacts on timber sale and stewardship contracts in Idaho is not immediately clear, according to Shawn Keough of Associated Logging Contractors.

“I don’t have a solid number at the moment, but I do know a number of our members are impacted,” said Keough.

Keough added that there are mixed messages emanating from Washing-ton, D.C. Last week, for instance, contractors were told to wrap up operations, but are now being told they can haul logs that are on the ground or in log decks.

Earlier this month, the AFRC and the Federal Forest Resource Coalition urged Robert Bonnie, undersecretary for Natural Resources & Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to ensure that timber sale operations continue or risk lawsuits for breach of contract.

“All told, a failure to reasonably manage ongoing timber operations during this lapse in appropriations could generate tens of millions in claims against the government and lead to the loss of scarce milling and logging infrastructure,” Partin and Federal Forest Resource Coalition Executive Director William Imbergamo said in the Oct. 8 letter to Bonnie.