A 16-month logging injunction on national forests in
New Mexico and Arizona was lifted by a federal judge Dec.
4.
Judge Roger Strand ruled that the Forest
Service had completed a biological opinion on how its forest plans
would affect the threatened Mexican spotted owl. The decision means
the agency can proceed with logging in the region, although forest
officials say winter conditions in the mountains will limit most
cuts until spring.
Environmentalists say the
year-and-a-half stalemate was instrumental in getting the Forest
Service to complete management guidelines that will protect what
remains of the region’s oldest trees.
“This
injunction has given the forests a needed rest, and us a chance to
show how the Forest Service has mismanaged public lands,” says John
Talberth of Forest Guardians, one of the
plaintiffs.
Under the agency’s new guidelines, no
trees greater than 24 inches in diameter can be cut in the fir and
pine forests preferred by spotted owls. And no commercial cutting
is allowed within 600 acres surrounding spotted owl nesting areas.
Timber industry officials say the guidelines will permanently hurt
their industry.
But environmentalists say they
are still concerned because the Forest Service will not follow its
new guidelines for some 240 projects held up by the injunction.
They have already brought another lawsuit to stop these projects,
which include 80 timber sales. Agency officials contend the new
guidelines apply only to future projects.
*Paul
Larmer
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Injunction lifted in the Southwest.
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