A federal judge on Friday halted 178 timber sales in western Oregon and Washington and Northern California after finding that they presented risks to threatened and endangered salmon. In issuing her injunction, Judge Barbara Rothstein found that the National Marine Fisheries Service had overlooked its own rules to protect fish when it approved the logging on federal lands. Enviros, who say the feds are not complying with Pres. Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan, hailed Rothstein’s move, while timber industry officials questioned whether the ruling really meant that the logging needed to stop.
