Court Upholds Logging Restrictions To Protect Bird The Timber Is Home To The Marbled Murrelet

Logging restrictions to protect a threatened sea bird, the marbled murrelet, on federal old-growth forests along the Oregon and Washington coasts were upheld Friday by a federal appeals court.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling that logging in disputed areas was allowed by an industry-backed 1995 federal law intended to speed up tree-cutting and restrict environmental challenges.

The law still prohibited logging in areas where endangered or threatened birds such as the murrelet were “known to be nesting,” allowing the government to make reasonable scientific determinations of those areas, the court said in a 3-0 ruling.

The ruling prevents logging of about half the trees companies were hoping to cut on the west side of the Cascades under the 1995 law, said Jim Geisinger, president of the Northwest Forestry Association, a timber industry group. He said the ruling undermined the new law.

“The court obviously wanted to reverse the intent of Congress and satisfy the (Clinton) administration,” Geisinger said.

He said it was probably too late to appeal the decision because the federal law expires in October. The law requires the government to make an equal amount of timber available to companies that are prevented from logging in particular areas, but Geisinger said he did not know where adequate replacement timber could be found.

Environmental groups celebrated their first legal victory under the 1995 law.

“This timber is not just home to the marbled murrelet, but also salmon and clean water,” said Kristen Boyles of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, which represents environmentalists in the case.

“We’re going to see ancient forests and salmon runs that were going to be clearcut now saved,” said Mark Hubbard of the Oregon Natural Resources Council.

The marbled murrelet spends most of its life at sea but flies up to 50 miles inland to lay its eggs high in the branches of old trees. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cites logging in nesting habitat for the bird’s severe decline in Oregon, Washington and Northern California.