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Court Bars Logging Plan in Largest U.S. Forest

Posted on: Friday, 5 August 2005, 13:55 CDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court on Friday blocked a U.S. government plan that would have opened up undeveloped areas of the largest U.S. national forest to logging.

At issue was a plan to allow logging in the Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska, where nearly 17 million acres make up the world's largest unspoiled temperate rain forest.

Environmental groups had sued, saying the move violated a public trust established under President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 and a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with them.

Judge Ronald Gould wrote that the U.S. Forest Service made a significant error in misinterpreting the results of a forecast for future market demand of Tongass timber.

"We hold that the Forest Service has not met its burden of showing that its admitted error in interpreting the market demand report for Tongass timber was harmless," Gould wrote.

"The Forest Service's error in assessing market demand fatally infected its balance of economic and environmental considerations, rendering the plan for the Tongass arbitrary and capricious."

Timber industry backers had hoped the plan would revive a regional timber industry that has faltered since the area's two pulp mills closed in the 1990s.

Friday's decision sent the matter back to a district court with the call for a permanent injunction to be applied.

The Tongass extends across spruce-and hemlock-covered islands, rain-drenched coastline, mountains and glaciers. Environmental and the timber industry have long engaged in debate about its future.

Source: REUTERS

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