GRANTS PASS, Ore. – The company that bought the first timber in a national forest roadless area since the Bush administration eased logging rules agreed Friday not to start felling trees until after a federal judge hears arguments in a lawsuit challenging the new policy.
Silver Creek Timber Co. of Merlin, which had been planning to start work as soon as Monday, made the agreement in a letter to lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Oregon attorney general’s office.
“That gives us time to present the issues to the court in a reasoned manner and have the court consider them,” said Kristen Boyles, a lawyer for Earthjustice, an environmental public interest law firm in Seattle. “That’s good news for roadless areas in Oregon.”
Silver Creek has preliminary work to do, such as upgrading existing logging roads outside the roadless area and removing trees that pose a hazard to helicopter logging operations, and is not making any concession to those who are trying to stop the logging, said attorney Scott Horngren of Portland, who represents Silver Creek.
Silver Creek owner John West had said last week that he would be ready Monday to start logging the Mike’s Gulch timber sale on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon.
He has yet to post the $30,000 bond required to start working, and has until July 27 to do so, said Forest Service spokeswoman Patty Burel.
West agreed to pay $300,052 for the 9 million board feet of timber in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless area of the Rogue River-Siskiyou, which also burned in the Biscuit fire.
Conservation groups and the states of Oregon, Washington, California and New Mexico have a joint hearing Aug. 1 before a federal judge in San Francisco to present arguments in their respective lawsuits challenging the validity of a Bush administration overhaul of rules for logging in roadless areas.
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