Clinton: Override For Timber Decision

President Clinton promised Saturday to pursue legislation overriding a court decision that forces additional sales of old-growth timber in the Northwest. The ruling threatens “grave environmental injury” to wildlife in the region, the president said.

On Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied the Clinton administration’s attempts to delay logging of some old-growth timber sales in the Pacific Northwest that had been released by Congress.

“The decision forces the release of timber that may lead to grave environmental injury to chinook salmon and other wildlife and damage our rivers and streams,” Clinton said in a written statement.

“My administration will actively pursue a legislative remedy to correct this extreme result,” the president said.

At issue are government sales of mostly old-growth timber on national forests in Oregon and Washington.

The Forest Service refused to release the sales to logging companies after environmentalists warned that logging the timber could jeopardize threatened and endangered species in the region.