Judge’s Ok Of Salvage Logging Decried By Conservationists

Conservationists on Tuesday charged U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge allowed the Forest Service to ignore long-standing guidelines as he rejected an injunction against logging on the South Fork of the Salmon River.

Lodge released an opinion denying the challenge against the Thunderbolt salvage timber sale in the drainage southeast of McCall.

A vast tract of land was burned by the 1994 Thunderbolt fire on rocky soil overlooking the river.

“The Idaho Conservation League said the Forest Service was arbitrary and capricious and made the decision without consideration of the environmental impacts, and the judge found that the Forest Service had covered all its bases and considered all the impacts and relevant information,” said Frank Carroll, public relations officer for the Boise National Forest.

The federal salvage timber rider allows the Forest Service to approve logging that would have been denied under standard laws, the Conservation League and The Wilderness Society argued.

They pointed out other federal departments including the National Marine Fisheries Service and Environmental Protection Agency had advised the Forest Service against cutting the Thunderbolt.

“It’s clear this sale would not have gone through if we had environmental laws to enforce it,” said John McCarthy of the Idaho Conservation League. “If we’re going to recover salmon, the South Fork has to be functional.”

Boise Cascade bought the 14 million board feet of timber over 3,000 acres for about $1 million and could begin cutting and hauling by helicopter in about three weeks.

The Intermountain Forest Industry Association said the Douglas fir on the site was deteriorating rapidly and the lodgepole pine could follow suit.

Attorneys for the Forest Service on Dec. 1 argued before Lodge that the agency would use the money to stabilize the slopes and prevent more siltation into the stream, like the huge blowout caused by logging in the 1960s.

Attorney Kristen Boyles of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund replied there was a real possibility of wiping out the spawning beds for the endangered Snake River chinook while costing the taxpayers at least $400,000 in a below-cost timber sale.

“The judge relied on the Forest Service as the experts when the agency allowed the stream to be trashed in the first place,” McCarthy said. “The Forest Service continues to prove their job is to fudge science and dupe the public.”

But one more obstacle is in the way. Lodge will hear a similar request for an injunction from the Idaho Sporting Congress in three weeks.

“We feel that the case that was won (Monday) was the strongest case with the best chance of winning,” Carroll said. ” We feel confident that Judge Lodge will find in our favor again in three weeks.”