County backs Forest Service in logging suit

Excerpt from The Union Democrat By ALEX MacLEAN Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Tuolumne County has joined a coalition of forces formed to combat a recent lawsuit related to the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to allow logging on about 30,000 acres of land that burned. in last year’s Rim Fire. Proponents of the project say the removal of burned trees will reduce the risk for future wildfires in the area, prepare the landscape for reforestation and support jobs in the local timber industry.

Plaintiffs are seeking an injunction to halt the logging plan from moving forward until the Forest Service looks further into the potential impacts to spotted owls inhabiting the area and possible mitigation measures .

The coalition supporting the Forest Service is led by the American Forest Resource Council and includes California Farm Bureau, California Forestry Association, Sierra Pacific Industries, Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions and the Crook family, who lost cattle and an historic family cabin in the fire. Local environmental groups have also pledged support for the project as part of the Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions, including the Twain Harte-based Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center.

The lawsuit asks the court for a temporary restraining order to halt work on the project while the case is being litigated, but a federal judge has yet to set a date for a hearing to rule on the request.