Timber Sales Ban Lifted; Little Impact Seen

A ban on timber sales that has brought logging ever closer to a standstill across the Northwest was lifted Monday by the federal judge who imposed it three years ago.

But the order was not expected to shake loose much--if any--new timber in the short term, as legal challenges await the Clinton Administration’s proposal for managing the 24 million acres of federal land in the forests of Washington, Oregon and Northern California that are home to the threatened spotted owl.

U.S. District Judge William A. Dwyer also agreed to the government’s offer that it provide at least 30 days’ notice of any new timber sales to all of the parties now challenging the Adminstration plan in his Seattle court. More than a dozen environmental groups have brought five lawsuits against the Clinton proposal since it was submitted in April. The timber industry also has filed two lawsuits against the plan in Washington, D.C.

Dwyer imposed the ban in 1991, saying it would remain in effect until the federal government presented a comprehensive plan that would assure protection of the spotted owl. When the Administration presented its formal vision for managing the forests--Clinton’s attempt to straddle environmental and industry concerns--it asked that the injunction be lifted.

In doing so Monday, Dwyer wrote that his action does not rule one way or the other on the Clinton plan. He set Sept. 12 as the date he will begin hearing oral arguments on that proposal.

Clinton’s plan, known as Option 9, eventually would allow for 1.1 billion board feet to be logged annually in the owl forests, one-quarter of the historic highs of the late 1980s. Some U.S. Forest Service estimates have said that 600 million board feet might be sold in 1995.

Lauri Hennessey, a spokeswoman for the Administration’s timber team in Portland, Ore., said the effect of giving all parties notice of new sales--plus the time it takes the Forest Service to prepare a sale--would severely limit the amount of timber sold over the summer.

“The gritty truth is that not much can be done in the next three months,” she said. “This does not mean that the nightmare is over” for timber communities in the region, she added, “but we’re a step closer to showing that the government is following the law.”

A spokesman for the timber industry said Dwyer’s order would change nothing. “This is a non-event,” said Mark Rey, vice president of the American Forest and Paper Assn. “There is so little (timber) available to sell,” he said, and the advance notice requirement gives the environmental groups “pretty much all the ammunition they need” to challenge sales.