Ecolex Logo
The gateway to
environmental law
Search results » Jurisprudence

The Lands Council; Oregon Natural Resources Council; Hells Canyon Preservation Council, an Oregon nonprofit corporation; Sierra Club, a California corporation, Plaintiffs- Appellants, v. Kevin Martin, Forest Supervisor of the Umatilla National Forest, U.S. Forest Service; United States Forest Service, Defendants-Appellees, and American Forest Resource Council, an Oregon corporation; Boise Building Solutions Manufacturing L.L.C., a Washington limited liability company; Dodge Logging, Inc., an Oregon corporation, Defendants-Intervenors-Appellees

Country/Territory
United States of America
Type of court
National - higher court
Date
Feb 12, 2007
Source
UNEP, InforMEA
Court name
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Seat of court
San Francisco
Judge
Graber Susan, P.
Paez Richard, A.
Bea Carlos, T.
Reference number
No. 06-35781 D.C. No. CV-06-00229-LRS
Language
English
Subject
Forestry
Keyword
Forestry protection measures Forest fires Forest service/forest officers
Abstract
In 2005, a fire burned approximately 28,000 acres within the Utamilla National Forest. The Forest Service proposed a timber salvage to recover some of the value of the dead and dying trees killed by the fire and subsequently permitted commercial harvesting of dead and dying trees in a part of the National Forest. It decided that live fire-injured trees would be harvested if they were were living but predicted to die within one year. The plaintiffs challenged this decision. The Ninth Circuit held that the Forest Service’s plan violated the Eastside Screens. The Eastside Screens had been developed by the Forest Service and were intended to protect old-growth forest. They prohibited logging “live trees” greater than 21-inches in diameter at breast height. The court was of the view that the common understanding of the term “live” was, quite simply, “not dead”. Thus even trees that were expected to die within a year, but that were not dead, were still “live”. It ordered that no live tree of the requisite size with green needles should be harvested.
Full text
0635781.pdf