Forest Service Takes Law Into Own Hands By Mike Roselle "The agency had no intention of following the law, but rather acted like they had been exempted from the law, even to the point of preempting a citizen lawsuit, which was the only remedy available to the many individuals and organizations who were opposed to this timber sale from the very beginning."

On a bright sunny Memorial Day Weekend, an act of vandalism was committed as the Freddies launched an assault on the Lewis and Clark Trail, dispatching loggers into old-growth forest in an undesignated roadless area directly adjacent to the historic trail, even using the trail to get access to the pockets of live, healthy trees that survived the Wendover Fire of 2003.

Although the sale was presented as a way to use fire-killed or severely damaged trees in a timely manner to provide social and economic benefits, all of the trees felled in Unit two of the three planned cuts were large, green, healthy trees while none of the dead trees were cut. They sought out and destroyed the very trees that were the subject of the lawsuit and only those trees.

On Wednesday, Karen Lindholdt, a lawyer for The Lands Council, based in Spokane, Wash. asked District Court Judge Edward Lodge to grant a temporary restraining order to halt the logging on the grounds that it violated the law. Judge Lodge has agreed to look into it and rule quickly. As of this post, Lodge has yet to make a decision. The fact that he has not ruled against the temporary restraining order yet is good news. We will keep you updated.

This desecration of an historic and ecologically significant stand of old-growth forest is just the latest example of the Bush administration’s categorical exclusion rule, which allow the Freddies to bypass federal laws designed to protect old growth and roadless areas on the National Forests by simply declaring it fire salvage. District Ranger Joni Packard arbitrarily decided that the area was not qualified as roadless. In fact these logging units are very remote. Unit 1 and unit 3 are part of a 6,500-acre roadless area. To access the far reaches of unit 1, the logging crews need to hike on the historic Lewis and Clark Trail. Packard also removed old growth designation from the remaining stands of live trees without even checking to see if they were alive, as required by law.

From the beginning, the Forest Service lied to everyone who expressed concern that they were offering a commercial sale so close to a National Historic Trail during the bicentennial year. They lied when they said they were only taking dead or dying trees. They lied when they said it would not be visible from the Lewis and Clark Trail, which was known to Lewis and Clark as the Nez Perce Trail. They reduced the protection for the historic trail corridor from six miles to a half-a-mile and allowed logging within sight of this new ridiculously narrow corridor.

They lied when they said they would leave 30 to 50 percent of the canopy. There will be less than thirty percent of the canopy remaining when they are done, which basically means that no canopy will remain at all. They are lying when they say this is standard operating procedure. This was clearly orchestrated from the top, and the Powell District Ranger Joni Packard had to organize quite a party to get everyone out in the wilderness with chain saws roaring at five-o’clock on a Sunday morning upon receiving notice of the conservationist’s intent to sue on Tuesday afternoon.

What does this tell us? It tells us that the Timber Beasts are still in control of our National Forests and the shots are still being called in the smoky back rooms where lobbyists grease the palms of corrupt politicians who bully a subservient agency and bend them to their will. It tells us that they were lying when they promised decisions would take the concerns of local citizens seriously and that they would obey the law. They have broken the law here and have gone far beyond the limits of the CE rule. They have neglected to do the required analysis and they have withheld important information from the public that would have clearly shown that the agency had no intention of following the law, but rather acted like they had been exempted from the law, even to the point of preempting a citizen lawsuit, which was the only remedy available to the many individuals and organizations who were opposed to this timber sale from the very beginning.

Please call Ranger Joni Packard at the Powell Ranger Station and let you know what you think about her letting the loggers onto the Lewis and Clark Trail. Her number is 208 942-3133. Or e-mail Ranger Packard at jpackard@fs.fed.us. Email her boss, another defendant in the lawsuit, Clearwater Forest Supervisor Larry Dawson at ldawson@fs.fed.us.