Environmental groups challenge Tongass timber sale, seek injunction
Alaska Dispatch
Earthjustice's Holly Harris said that this time an injunction is needed because logging could begin as soon as April 1.
JUNEAU -- Environmental groups announced Thursday that they were appealing the Big Thorne timber sale, the U.S. Forest Service's biggest Tongass National Forest sale in years. The agency said it was disappointed that the sale it had spent years preparing was again being challenged.
"It's just another legal roadblock that's really putting a wrench in us getting to our transition to young growth*," said Kent Cummins, a Ketchikan-based spokesman for the Forest Service's Tongass office.
The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, the Natural Resources Defense Council and several other groups have sued to block the Big Thorne sale, but federal judge Ralph Beistline last week rejected their challenge.
Now the groups, represented by environmental law firm Earthjustice, are appealing to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. And this time they're asking for an injunction to stop imminent logging, something they hadn't done before.
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http://www.adn.com/article/20150326/environmental-groups-challenge-tongass-timber-sale-seek-injunction
••* "transition to young growth" --
Shows no understanding of forest ecology. Old growth forests have unique ecosystems in their crowns. New growth is only for cutting down again. Fine for forestry companies, bad for forest's fauna & non-tree flora.
