Logging challenge returns to court

By Guy McCarthy

The Union Democrat, May 8, 2015

      A contentious lawsuit that has the Forest Service, Tuolumne County, loggers and other Rim Fire recovery stakeholders united against a challenge from environmental groups is expected to resurface Monday in San Francisco federal court.

Environmentalists, including the Center for biological Diversity, want to stop logging to remove trees burned during the 2013 Rim Fire because they claim California spotted owls live in and near burned areas in the Stanislaus National forest where logging is underway.

California spotted owls are not listed as threatened or endangered by the Forest Service or National Park Service, but the state Department of Fish and Wildlife considers them a “species of special concern.”

Tuolumne County officials and others have staunchly opposed legal actions against the salvage logging project since the Center for Biological Diversity, Earth Island Institute and California Chaparral Institute jointly filed their lawsuit in September.

“The county, along with several other groups, the American Forest Resource Council, Sierra Pacific Industries, Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions, the crook family and several other groups, have joined together to support the Forest Service and the Rim Fire recovery project,” Tuolumne County Counsel Sarah Carrillo said this week.

In November, federal District Judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr. denied a third consecutive request from environmentalists to delay the salvage logging project.

“We are trying to get an injunction in place to prevent logging of spotted owl habitat,” Oakland-based Justin Augustine of the Center for Biological Diversity said this week.  “There is logging of this habitat ongoing at this point.  What was authorized by the Forest Service in their environmental impact statement was about 15,000 acres of spotted owl habitat.”

“We are in court because, from our perspective, the forest Service is not acknowledging they are going to be logging spotted owl habitat,” Augustine said.  “We know that is going to occur, but the Forest Service has not acknowledged that.”

Carrillo, who plans to argue otherwise in the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Monday, refuted Augustine’s claims.

“That‘s their point of view,” Carrillo said.  “We believe the Forest Service did adequate analysis, and the project should be allowed to go forward.”

Outside environmental groups can’t break the strong local consensus supporting Rim Fire salvage logging, said Shaun Crook, president of the Tuolumne County Farm Bureau.

“My family has property up there known as the Myers Ranch,” Crook said.  “They lost a cabin, and 400 acres of timber, and around a hundred cattle in the Rim Fire.  To me, what is unfortunate is these outside groups who do not live here, they feel the need to file these lawsuits.

“I have to give the Forest Service credit moving at light speed to get that timber sold for salvage logging,” Crook said.  “The only people making money on this is lawyers.  I hope if these lose, the Center for Biological Diversity will be on the hook for the attorney fees.  People around here, including local environmentalists, are in favor of the salvage logging.”

The Rim Fire burned more than 400 square-miles, including portions of the Stanislaus National forest and Yosemite National Park, between August and October 2013.  More than 80 percent of the Stanislaus Forest did not burn and remains vulnerable to bark beetle infestation, tree mortality, drought and competition for scarce water, according to the Forest Service.