U.S. Will Pay Timber Company Not to Log

In a victory for environmentalists, the government agreed to pay a timber company $475,000 not to cut trees in an Oregon national forest where dozens of anti-logging protesters have been arrested. “We think this is a creative solution that will contribute to solving a contentious situation,” Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said in announcing the deal. Environmentalists had filed a lawsuit seeking to block logging of the Warner Creek salvage sale in western Oregon. But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled this week that the logging was not subject to legal challenge.