Judge stops some salvage for now
Hungry Horse News
The helicopters had just arrived. Then the court ruling flew in.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy partially ruled in favor of a motion for a temporary restraining order against the Flathead National Forest Service to stop salvage logging in some areas burned by the fires of 2003.
The restraining order was sought by the Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan. Both claimed that summer logging activities would displace and harm grizzly bears.
Molloy's ruling allows salvage logging to continue on sales that have non-core grizzly bear habitat.
Other sales, such as the Beta sale on the West Side Reservoir, which is made up almost entirely of core grizzly bear habitat, the salvage logging is stopped until Molloy can rule on a preliminary injunction sought by the environmental groups.
A hearing on that ruling is scheduled for July 29.
"The evidence in front of the court at this point does not tip in favor of the universal injunction sought by the plaintiffs," Molloy wrote. "Logging activities of various sorts have been taking place on many of these units through the spring. (Swan View's) failure to request a restraining order earlier regarding these activities suggests there is no urgency to stop them now. In addition, there is no compelling reason to stop non-core logging on sales such as the McGinnis, where only 10 of 854 acres are in core (grizzly) habitat, or the Hornet, with only 33 of 998 acres in core habitat.
"The Beta sale is admittedly a more difficult case, since a significant portion of the entire sale is within core habitat."
Molloy then ruled that logging could continue on units that do not include core habitat.
The Beta sale is on the West Side Reservoir, near the Hungry Horse Dam.
The ruling comes just as helicopter loggers had arrived in the valley, said Forest Service Spokeswoman Denise Germann.
Germann said the Forest Service was going to ask Molloy for a clarification on the ruling to further define where salvage logging could and could not occur.
The sales, particularly the sales along the reservoir, represent about 65 million board feet of timber that many local mills are relying on.
The longer they are delayed, mills have warned, the greater the likelihood that the timber will lose its value. Fire burned timber checks over time. Checks are large cracks in the log that render it useless.