Ruling allows logging in forest burned by Biscuit fire

GRANTS PASS, Ore. – A federal judge has dismissed a legal challenge to logging trees in roadless areas killed by the 2002 Biscuit fire, but it remains questionable whether timber companies will want to buy burned trees rotting on the stump for nearly four years.

Following the recommendations of a magistrate, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene dismissed consolidated lawsuits on Tuesday that challenged logging in old-growth forest reserves and roadless areas on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

U.S. Magistrate John Cooney in Medford had recommended dismissal last July after rejecting all the claims of environmental groups that the Forest Service had failed to adequately protect old-growth forest reserves, roadless areas and fish habitat from the harm caused by intensive logging.

Sparked by lightning, the Biscuit fire burned 500,000 acres in the summer of 2002, making it the largest fire in the country that year.

It has since become a legal and political battleground – with the Bush administration and the timber industry on one side and environmental groups on the other – over how best to restore the forest and habitat critical to the northern spotted owl and salmon.

Roadless areas are parts of national forests considered too remote and too rugged to be economical for logging in the past. The Bush administration last year opened them to logging under certain conditions after they had been put off-limits by the Clinton administration. Four western states and several environmental groups are challenging the new roadless policy in federal court.

The Forest Service will take the next few weeks to decide whether there is enough timber remaining after four years of rot to justify logging, Burel said.

Though a decision has not been made, environmental groups were likely to appeal, said Kristin Boyles, attorney for Earthjustice.

“Those are very important areas,” she said. “I don’t think people have given up on those sales.”