:: rawblogXport ::

:: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 ::

Old-growth logging nearing a standstill in dramatic shift BY CRAIG WELCH, The Seattle Times
When timber harvests ticked upward under President Reagan, environmentalists grasped this new science and fought back with lawyers and tree spikes. In 1991, U.S. District Court Judge William Dwyer halted most timber sales in the Northwest to protect habitat crucial for the owl and other species.

Loggers and carpenters wrangled a promise in 1992 out of a campaigning Bill Clinton to hold a summit if elected to protect the forests and get the timber machine rolling. A year later, the new administration did, and scientists began the most exhaustive environmental analyses in history.

The Clinton administration projected it could provide loggers about 1 billion board feet of timber each year - 20 percent of the region's cut in the 1980s. Most would come from old-growth in Oregon and in Washington's Gifford Pinchot National Forest. It never happened.

Despite the projections, 'the deal highly favored people who wanted less timber harvested,' said Mark Rey, a Department of Agriculture undersecretary for Bush who oversees the Forest Service.

posted 6:49 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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