The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a United States Forest Service approval of four Tongass logging projects.
A three-judge panel of the court that hears appeals of federal cases originating in Alaska disagreed with U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline, who had upheld the Forest Service’s decision. The panel ordered the Forest Service to re-analyze the projects.
The logging projects in question are those in Scott Peak, Overlook, Traitors Cove and Soda Nick. According to a release by the plaintiffs, Greenpeace and Cascadia Wildlands, the four projects would cut 33 million board feet from 1,700 acres of old-growth forest and constructed 13.7 miles of logging roads in already fragmented areas.
The court cites concerns dealing with how the Forest Service used its deer model under the National Forest Management Act.
Greenpeace First Campaigner Larry Edwards said the lawsuit occurred because the Forest Service did not accurately explain any scientific basis for its decision on the projects.
“It boils down to there was no scientific explanation,” he said.
A primary concern was management of the Alexander Archipelago wolf. It also involved Sitka black-tailed deer, which Edwards said must be maintained, as this is a primary prey for these wolves as well as subsistence hunters.
“We’re thrilled with the ruling. It’s a clear win for us,” said Edwards. “It will make the Forest Service do the right thing in doing a credible analysis.”
“This was not a case of difference of opinion, but a conflict between science and politics. This was the Forest Service saying two plus two equals five, and hiding its bad math behind complex computer models. We knew if the judges looked behind the curtain they’d see it’s a mirage, and that’s what happened. The Forest Service wasn’t even able to meet the low legal bar of having a rational explanation for its decisions,” Cascadia Wildlands Alaska representative Gabe Scott said in the release.
“Getting the science straight is crucial, to provide enough deer habitat to assure that wolf populations will be sustained and that the needs of subsistence hunters are met,” he said.
The Forest Service was unable to comment on the decision due to the litigation involved. Spokesman Ray Massey referred questions to the Department of Justice. The Department also declined comment.
Any time approval of a logging project is overturned “is bad news for the timber industry,” said Owen Graham of the Alaska Forest Association. Graham said he had not yet had time to review this ruling.
The decision states that the Forest Service was inconsistent in using habitat sustainability index scores in its model to estimate the number of deer that can live on the affected lands.
Edwards said this is one of the two significant errors the Forest Service made. He said the best available science shows the maximum carrying capacity for the best quality deer is 100 deer per square mile. The decision states the Forest Service identified 100 deer in its table but inexplicably allows 130 deer per square mile as a potential carrying capacity.
Edwards said the second big problem was with a data set called VolStrata that’s used in the deer model. He said a 2000 Forest Service study shows that data set is not correlated to habitat quality, meaning tree volume is examined irrespective to tree size. The court didn’t decide on this matter but left it for the Forest Service to straighten out in its studies.
Edwards said the principles in this lawsuit apply to every significant timber sale between 1996 and 2008 before the Forest Service corrected errors in the deer model. However, he said it still fails to address cumulative impacts, especially on Prince of Wales Island.
Edwards dedicated the win to Glen Ith, who was a Forest Service project biologist who raised concerns over some of these projects. Ith was cited as a whistleblower who sued the Forest Service in 2006 over road-building issues and did an administrative appeal of the Scott Peak project. He died in March 2008 just days after his job was eliminated.
• Contact reporter Jonathan Grass at 523-2276 or at jonathan.grass@juneauempire.com.
Comments (26)
Add commentSEACC and pals, great neighbors doing great things for SE
They must be popping the champagne corks up at the environmentalists offices over this news ( do Granolas and bark eaters care about where corks come from?)
Between this and the road ruling, I am guessing we should just all go to work for the Feds or the environmentalists, they care about what happens to the PEOPLE impacted now don't they?
What a crock.
Appeal To World Court
It is time for Parnell and Dept. of Law to move on to the World Court....maybe they will listen. US judges continue to ignore the weak Alaska appeals, and that's just not FAIR! Ha-ha-ha!
NO to subsidizing timber industry!
If loggers want trees then they should plant them, just like any other farmer has to with their crop! but they must leave our natural forests alone!
The Government should not be subsidizing the Timber industry
and it should be illegal to cut down any old growth period!
Taking down 1,700 acres of old-growth forest is just stupid! We all know that forests influence climate change by affecting the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
When forests grow, carbon is removed from the atmosphere and absorbed in wood, leaves and soil. Overall, the world’s forest ecosystems are estimated to store some 638 billion tonnes of carbon, which is more than the amount of carbon in the entire atmosphere.
I think we are at a point now with climate change where no one has the right to logg our forests it is a public health concern and a national security issue!
Thank you Larry Edwards for working to protect public health and our national security.
renewable resource use loses again
such a shame that the radical environmentalists spend so much effort trying to shut down sustainable and renewable resource development in one of the most well managed heavily regulated areas in the world. I guess timber will have to keep coming from unregulated clearcuts in sensitive habitats from other countries who are not as concerned about being stewards of the land. to me it seems very hypocritical that greenpeace is so proud of this accomplishment - they just shoved this demand to a more less protected region in the world.
AK loggers why not use
AK loggers why not use plastics and make wood?
We have a waste problem folks. We toss plastic materials into our dumps and should be making use of it. NOT cutting down trees for like materials!
SE can manufacture plastic wood products; this stuff is even better than real wood and sells at a high price.
the other thing is plastic is collected here at our dump (most actually goes into the dump) but what is collected is sent south to a business and it returns as the new plastic wood. Instead of sending this FREE material out of state lets make jobs and make use it here
Timber Industry it is time to evolve.
Then what:
Good idea Haily, however plastic comes from petroleum. BO and friends eventually want to cut all drilling and new exploration. Then what?
Sounds like a great
Sounds like a great opportunity for you, Haily. But I have to wonder how toxic the process of making wood out of plastic is, particularly in such a sensitive environment like Southeast. Where do you get the material to make plastic wood? Do you think that if it was economically feasible, somebody with financial backing would be doing that here in Southeast? The reality is, Southeast will likely never be a manufacturing region. We used to cut down and replant trees, but it seems like developing a renewable resource is out of the question these days.
There is always the Great
There is always the Great Pacific Garbage Patch:
The Patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre.
Estimates on size range from 270,000 sq mi to more than 5,800,000 sq miles Which is .41% to 8.1% of the size of the Pacific Ocean, or, in some media reports, up to "twice the size of the continental United State"!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch
We should clean this crap up and use it instead of continually destroying what supports all life.
WE need the Forests!
We are talking about an
We are talking about an entire ecosystem here with the Tongass that has been standing and in the making for hundreds of years that supports our wildlife, fisheries etc....
If loggers want to log trees then why have they not planted a tree plantation somewhere?
Lets see them do THAT rather than taking out an entire coastal forest ecosytem that has taken hundreds of years to become what it is!
If loggers want trees then they should plant them, just like any other farmer has to with their crop! but they must leave our natural forests alone!
Haily Question
Where was it ever said the the timber industry goal is "taking out an entire coastal forest ecosystem?" The article mentioned 1,700 acres of a total of 16+ million acres. There is enough to go around for everyone; except the extremists.
haineschris
I don't see where Haily said it was their "goal", but you have to know that you don't have to take the entire 16+ million acres to wipe out the ecosystem......
About Traitor's Cove...
I am relieved that they have required the Forrest Service to get their science right about Traitor's Cove. That is a beautiful area that has a biologically active saltwater lagoon. There are other unique features in the area also, and it could be a good example of an area being worth more to the State of Alaska if it is left alone. I can't help but wonder what the roughnecks in Ketchikan really think about this project; they certainly like to go there to shoot up the place on the weekends, on the other hand, they want a logging job so they can afford the booze and ammo so they can go there on their weekends. Perhaps they are thinking they can just get drunk and shoot up the place while they are at work, just like in the good old days. Maybe chase the Bears with the logging equipment! Woo-hoo!
milspec -
plastic can also be recycled, more than once I believe, and the plastic we already have that is NOT being recycled I would guess would be enough to keep us in new plastic for years. Talk about an untapped resource.....
CaptnNoah - unfortunately, you are probably correct. And the global loss of huge forests in Brazil or China or Russia still affect all of us in the long run. I often wonder if we, globally, will come to our senses or have a big enough 'minor' catastrophy to really change our ways, or if we will go the way of the Rapanui, and not recognize our peril until it is too late.
After all, the globe is just one big island.
16+ million acres compared to logged area is misleading
That's the entire forest, some of which is glaciated and entirely worthless to the timber industry and much wildlife. The relevant comparison is old growth trees to be cut vs. old growth trees remaining.
Also, you folk whining about some conspiracy to shut down SE Alaska, that is not what happened here. The court simply found that the Forest Service did not comply with the law. It can now go back and fix that problem and proceed. If the Forest Service would do that in the first place, and it really is not that hard, they would win every case. Maybe, just maybe, if the Forest Service complied with the law and looked at the problems inherent in its proposed sales, someone would chop the project and chalk it up to stupidity.
retrain
Since the AMHS is moving the Juneau Reservation office to Ketchikan perhaps the out of work loggers will be retrained to work at the new " Ketchikan Central Office. " Juneaus' loss is Ketchikans gain.
Loggers working in a
Loggers working in a office?!? Thats rich!
retrain loggers to staff the
retrain loggers to staff the registration office? how many people do you think work in that office? with the automation of the reservation system, the position of reservation clerk will eventually go the way of the steno clerk.
Most of the loggers I know
Most of the loggers I know have meaty sausage fingers that are bigger than the buttons on the phone. Half the ones I know are computer illiterate. And they are a little rough around the edges to be saying "Ferry Service. How may I help you?"
kpawsuh
You just described me, exactly,haha!
I threw the retraining comment in there just for fun.Ain't no way to retrain me ! Have a good day ! BTW, do U know where I can get a bigger phone?
FS is the Problem Not Larry
We all owe Larry a debt of gratitude. On the surface it appears that it is the same-old, same-old -- the greenies versus the timber beasts. In reality, however, it goes much deeper than that.
First, it is a Forest Service failure of knowingly ignoring available science to estimate environmental impacts that has got them into trouble. Unfortunately, this failure has been repeated many times and ultimately puts us all at risk. Simply, the Forest Service has been kicking the can down the road until a more catastrophic conflict can no longer be avoided -- such as a ESA listing.
Second and even more egregious, the agency has counted on the tradition where the Courts defer to agency discretion rather than critically studying/understanding the merits of the science. For years the agency has counted on the Court to abdicate on cases where the agency knew full well their justifications were flawed, but the courts were unable to objectively parse the science.
Lastly, this time the court did more study, but also found flaws in the decision making process that could not come close to supporting the agency's justification of acceptable wildlife impacts.
Larry, well done.
Cubs Win World Series!!!
Same as it ever was.
A bit of history
For at least 7 years the issue of wolf mortality and deer habitat capability has been raised on every timber sale appeal that I have been a co-appellant on. Note that an appeal is not litigation, it is a ask for the issue to be resolved without litigation. Through those years I was astonished that the Forest Service never dealt with the issues raised by me (the Sierra Club), Greenpeace, and other groups. If they would have done so, they could have just redone the environmental study, put the sale out for bid, and that would have been the end of the story. The blame for the overturning of the 4 sales should be on the shoulders of the FS, not the environmentalists.
Thank the crazies don't knock them
Before you knock the crazy tree huggers or the crazy earthrapers, stop and say thank you to both sides.
62 million people a year die due to organic and chemical pollutants that have acclimated in the water we drink and the air we breath. Trees clean that Air. That’s a lot and we can do better but we are nearing the best balance ever. If the Crazy earthrapers had their way the planet including Alaska would be Logged, paved and we would all have black lung, our life expectancy would be dramatically reduced due to chemical pollutants in our water and air. We would watch our children die of cancer, and our food source would be extremely diminished and contaminated. If the crazy tree hugger had their way we would all be hunter gathers or maybe just gathers and dying of simple infections, parasitic diseases, all the treatable ones and the flu. Starvation would be the norm. With out the crazy earthraper we would not have access to every day living created by mining, paved roads, mass farming, and fishing. Health care depends on pollution from mining chemicals and petroleum products. It is all used in mass drug production, sonograms, scalps, the text books and computer used for the science behind our health care. It also provides for the Monitoring equipment needed to say Oh hell no. This will cause to much destruction to all life Recycling up-cycling and re-using is becoming the norm. Development practices are getting better and better every day, all because of pressure from the crazy tree hugger. For those of us in the middle we have to remember we do have a balance because of the crazies on both sides, we have to weigh the pros and cons of new development and relize life is about the big picture not how big our house is.
protect our irreplaceable natural resources and tax dollars
I live in Oregon where our forests have already been largely obliterated by short sighted commercial interests that serve the interests of a few rich logging moguls and a handful of employees at the expense of an irreplaceable natural resource that belongs to everyone. These old growth forests are incredible, and should be respected and protected for our progeny. Not to mention the fact that this heavily subsidized industry is being paid for by myself and every other federal tax payer. These loggers need to find some other way to make a living and stop being such a drain on our treasury and our pristine forests. Get a clue.
nedm, Oregon doesn't count
nedm, Oregon doesn't count anymore! It's already gone over to the dark side!
You're exaggerating anyway...