Federal judges sided with environmentalists in July,
ruling that the U.S. Forest Service has failed to make good on its
promise to protect endangered species in Southwestern forests and
streamside areas.
The 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals in San Francisco upheld a six-week ban on over 20 timber
sales and barred grazing on 11 Southwestern forests. The July 25
injunction will remain in place while judges consider charges that
the Forest Service has not complied with forest plans revised last
year to protect the Mexican spotted owl, the southwestern willow
flycatcher and other species (HCN, 2/3/97).
The
Forest Service told ranchers Aug. 1 that the court decision would
affect roughly half of the 1,365 grazing allotments in the region.
But almost one month later, the cows are still in the forests.
Agency officials say they need time to determine which grazing
allotments will be affected by the
injunction.
The agency’s “glacial pace” is its
way of buying time, says John Horning of the advocacy group Forest
Guardians. “They realize they have major violations of the
Endangered Species Act, but they don’t want to kick the cows off
mid-season.”
“Just taking all the cows off
doesn’t make any sense,” counters the Forest Service’s Pat Jackson.
“(Environmental-ists) seem to think you snap your fingers and
change the world overnight. It just doesn’t work that way.”
The Forest Service was to have decided by the
end of August which grazing permits will change. If the agency
doesn’t act quickly, says Horning, his group will be back in court.
“The remedy is pretty simple,” he says. “They just need to get the
cows out of riparian areas.”
*Greg
Hanscom
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Injunction shakes forests.
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