Friends of the Earth and other enviro groups are moving forward with a lawsuit arguing that the U.S. Forest Service has violated laws that require it to consider the full costs of logging on national forests, including the financial impacts on tourism, watershed protection, and wildlife. The groups filed the case in 1998, seeking to halt four timber sales in Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest, and since then the USFS and a timber industry group have sought to have the suit dismissed on procedural grounds. Last week, however, a U.S. district judge cleared the way for the suit to proceed. On the flip side, loggers in Washington state scored what could be a huge victory last week when a county court jury sided with a timber company in a property “takings” case and awarded it $2.25 million in damages because it was barred from logging a portion of its land when the state designated a spotted owl preserve. The jury decision marks the first successful legal challenge to the state’s system of preserves; the state is considering an appeal.
