Judge Halts Sequoia Logging

By David Kravets
The Associated Press

Tuesday 13 September 2005

San Francisco - A federal judge here halted the Bush administration's bid to keep logging 2,000 acres in Giant Sequoia National Monument, saying he questioned the scientific analysis used to justify cutting in a preserve that houses two-thirds of the world's largest trees.

US District Judge Stephen Breyer, ruling in a lawsuit brought by environmentalists, also questioned whether fire control was the government's real motive for allowing commercial logging in the monument. The so-called Saddle Project was approved years ago, but cutting only commenced this summer, when timber prices were high.

The government, Breyer wrote late Friday in issuing a preliminary injunction barring further logging, "waited five years to execute this contract because of unfavorable timber prices."

In 2000, just after the project was approved, Congress declared Sequoia National Forest a national monument, which generally prevented further logging on thousands of acres in the Central Valley area of Tulare County. The government argued that the project was grandfathered in and therefore not covered by monument rules.

The Justice Department, which defended the logging plan in court here, declined to say whether it would challenge Breyer's injunction. If it does not, the case is over and the acreage is safe from harvesting. The government could also take the issue to trial.

Breyer ruled that he was unsure whether the project, which included harvesting 31,000 conifer trees hundreds of years old, "would still protect the forest from fire." Sequoia trees were not targeted in the harvest by logging concern Sierra Forests Products.

The Sierra Club and other groups brought the case this year to stop the logging that began July 10 and ended Aug. 5 after Breyer issued a temporary injunction barring further harvesting. A preliminary injunction is issued when a judge believes plaintiffs would prevail at trial.

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