Cove-Mallard Area Logging Approved

Logging in portions of Idaho’s Nez Perce National Forest, the site of numerous environmental protests, was upheld Monday by a federal appeals court.

The U.S. Forest Service adequately studied the possible effects on the Snake River chinook salmon and other wildlife before approving three large timber sales in the Cove and Mallard drainages in central Idaho, said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Forest Service approved logging of more than 80 million board-feet of timber and construction of at least 135 miles of new road in 1991 and 1992.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, which has listed the chinook salmon as a threatened species, found that the logging was not likely to jeopardize the salmon’s continued existence.

Environmental activists, led by Earth First, have held protests in the area each summer since 1992. Some have been arrested for blocking roads. Environmentalists say it is the largest roadless area in the lower 48 states and contend the government’s findings about the salmon were based on inaccurate information.

But the appeals court said groups led by the Idaho Sportsmen’s Coalition that sued to halt the logging provided little evidence to support their challenge to the government’s environmental analysis.

“The Forest Service took the required ‘hard look’ at the environmental consequences of the proposed timber harvests and sales,” said Judge Dorothy Nelson in the 3-0 ruling.

She said the government’s study considered impacts on wildlife, recreation, visual quality, cultural resources and wilderness.

The fact that the chinook was listed as a threatened species during and after the Forest Service’s initial study did not require a new study, Nelson said. She said the changed status of the salmon did not alter the fact that the government had reasonably determined the fish would not be harmed.