Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan Drafted Illegally, Judge Rules

A team of scientists formed to prepare the Northwest forest plan for the Clinton Administration violated open meeting laws, a federal judge ruled Monday. But the judge stopped short of declaring the entire proposal illegal.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that the team appointed a year ago by President Clinton to develop the plan “was convened and did its work in violation of” the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

Jackson also found that the makeup of the team “at least suggests . . . that the vast majority of (the team members) were pro-ecosystem management, having minimal sympathy for the forest products industry.”

However, the judge did not grant the timber industry’s request for an injunction prohibiting the Administration from implementing the proposal.

The plan calls for dramatic cutbacks in the logging levels of the 1980s and is scheduled to be presented to another federal judge in Seattle next month.

Industry lawyers said they expect the ruling will have the effect of forcing the panel to start over in developing a management plan.

“It is inconceivable to us that the President could adopt a plan that has been ruled illegal,” said Ralph Saperstein, vice president of the Northwest Forestry Assn. in Portland, Ore.

Interior Department spokesman Kevin Sweeney disagreed.

Jackson’s decision to not grant the request for an injunction “is an indication we can move forward. He acknowledges the good faith effort we have made in bringing good science to bear in trying to move forward and end the gridlock,” Sweeney said.

Justice Department lawyers had argued the team of scientists was made up largely of government workers and not subject to the law.

The ruling further complicates Clinton’s attempt to walk a fine line in resuming some logging on national forests in the Northwest while complying with environmental laws protecting the northern spotted owl, a threatened species.

The Administration is scheduled to present its plan to U.S. District Judge William Dwyer in Seattle next month in an attempt to resume some logging.