Judge Upholds Old Growth and Imperiled Species' Protection

[Judi Lynn]

Judge Upholds Old Growth and Imperiled Species' Protection

January 11, 2006 — By Center for Biological Diversity

SEATTLE — Late yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman issued a final decision declaring illegal the Bush administration’s decision to eliminate safeguards that protected old-growth forests and associated plants and wildlife. Under the principle of “look before you leap,” the “Survey and Manage” standards of the Northwest Forest Plan required federal agencies to survey an old-growth area for rare plants and wildlife before allowing logging or other destructive activities and, if found, modify their plans to reduce the risk of extinction. The survey requirement only applies on federal lands.

"Once again, the courts have insisted that the Forest Service use science rather than politics and favoritism to protect our northwest ecosystems,” said Pete Frost of the Western Environmental Law Center. “We hope this ends the government’s attempts to roll back the protections the Northwest Forest Plan affords some of our last remaining old-growth forests.”

The Bush administration attempted to eliminate the Survey and Manage standard along with other safeguards as part of a settlement agreement with the logging industry over a lawsuit logging interests filed in 2001. Before a judge could rule on the merits of the case, the Bush administration agreed to the demands of the logging industry.

“The Bush administration's back-room deal with the timber industry was thrown out. The decision to eliminate protection for old-growth wildlife is enjoined, and now the Forest Service and BLM must take the common sense approach by ‘looking before logging,'” said Doug Heiken of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, one of the plaintiff groups.
(snip/...)

http://www.enn.com/aff.html?id=1083

[mike_c]

1. this is damned good news up here in the PNW...

...unless you're in the business of raping and pillaging the people's national forests.

:woohoo:

[roguevalley]

2. agreed. god bless the old trees.

[cornermouse]

3. Look for the Bush administration to launch an all out war on

the judge. They don't like it when someone tells them "no".

[Rainscents]

4. This is great news!!!

High five to judge!!! :toast:

[TaleWgnDg]

5. Oh, hell, that's those *crazies* in the U.S. Ninth Circuit . . .

What do you expect? :sarcasm:

[sofa king]

6. If Jared Diamond is correct...

...about the relationship between deforestation and the collapse of civilizations, a future Northwest Confederacy will be wise to consider making a monument to those Ninth Circuit crazies.

I've seen this type of "setup lawsuit" between the Bush Administration and big business once before:

After the 2000 presidential elections, however, changes in the Department of the Interior signaled reconsideration of the Glamis mine. Before the Glamis claims were heard before a judge, the new Secretary of the Interior under the Bush administration, Gale Norton, began to reform the policies of the DOI. In March of 2001 the BLM moved to suspend the regulations on mining that had been created during the Clinton administration that resulted in the denial of Glamis’ mining operations. In October of 2001, Secretary of the Interior Norton allowed Glamis to reapply with the BLM for permission to run an open-pit mine at Indian Pass. Months later tribe members were shocked to read in a newspaper that Norton had made a decision to allow the development of Indian Pass without notifying them first.

http://www.pluralism.org/research/profiles/display.php?profile=73418

This was an insider deal that I had the displeasure of witnessing up close, and for some time now I've been trying to prove that Jack Abramoff was behind it (Abramoff's partner in crime, J. Steven Griles, certainly was).

In the back of my mind, I knew that this was probably a general tactic being used by the Bush Administration, but it's not something I've been interested in until recently. But historians of the future will be interested in the pattern: lawsuit settlements by the federal government will be one of the types of records which will survive even this most secretive Presidency's revision. When our impoverished, ignorant grandchildren are building monuments to the first Dictator of America, there will still be some who can read between the lines.

[rodeodance]

7. thanks for your recognition of this 'pattern'---good eye.

[sofa king]

8. Thank you.

And suddenly, it occurs to me that this very next LBN article from Judi Lynn might be something of an example of the same:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2034285

In this case, a lawsuit was placed against two Texas casinos by then AG (now U.S. Senator) John Cornyn, apparently at the behest of none other than future Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

Take that with a grain of salt though. The rumors that it was Miers' idea come from the grapevine. As much as I've read about the Indian gaming scandal, somehow I've either forgotten or never learned exactly how that casino was shut down. Since tribes are sovereign, it should have been a federal case, but I don't know for sure. Yet.

[texpatriot2004]

9. Thank you Judge nm