Parties seeking limited timber activity

WildEarth Guardians and Forest Service ask judge to loosen restrictions

Parties in the Mexican spotted owl case are asking a federal judge who halted all commercial wood gathering in New Mexico’s five national forests to once again allow it and other forest activities, such as prescribed burns and trail maintenance.

WildEarth Guardians — a Santa Febased environmental group that filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming it was not complying with the Endangered Species Act — has reached an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to allow previously permitted timber management activity outside of protected Mexican spotted owl habitat. A federal judge in Arizona still has to sign off before companies can resume cutting wood.

Following WildEarth Guardians’ lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Raner Collins halted all logging, trail maintenance and other activity until the Forest Service can determine such practices are not harming the owl, which was listed as threatened in 1993 under the Endangered Species Act.

At the time of the listing, more than 1 million acres of the owl’s habitat had been lost, mostly because of logging, according to the injunction order. Collins wrote in the order that more than 20 years later, it is still listed as threatened and information about its population “is still minimal.”

WildEarth Guardians Director John Horning said the environmental group’s fundamental disagreement with the U.S. Forest Service has not changed: It is still arguing that the service has insufficient data to show that the timber business is not harming the Mexican spotted owl.

But Horning said the judge’s original injunction was much broader than it needed to be to protect the owls.

The agreement, if signed by the judge, would allow commercial projects outside of Mexican spotted owl protected

activity centers, critical habitat and owl recovery habitat. It also would allow prescribed burns — excluding trees no greater than 9 inches in diameter within protected activity centers.

Commercial firewood gathering would be allowed outside of Mexican spotted owl habitat under the agreement, excluding a few projects within Gila National Forest.

The agreement also would allow the planned U.S. Capitol Christmas tree to be cut in the Carson National Forest, plus personal Christmas tree cutting, cutting of personal wood products such as vigas and latillas, wood gathering for Native American ceremonies and cutting “hazard trees” that present a risk of injury to life or property.

“Our hope was that the judge approves it, modifying his order and that all those activities are given a green light,” Horning said.

The document is signed by WildEarth Guardians lawyer Steven Sugarman and Denver-based U.S. Department of Justice senior trial attorney Rickey Turner.

The Forest Service had previously announced that the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree would come from Carson National Forest this year. But Collins’ court injunction put a pause on the tree-cutting ceremony.

Meanwhile, the Forest Service is still asking Collins to essentially overturn the existing injunction and allow all commercial activity that was permitted before it was issued.

“The Forest Service continues to be committed to being as open and transparent as possible in notifying interested groups and individuals when we take steps aimed at alleviating the stressors of the recent court-ordered injunction,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Shayne Martin said in a statement.

The Mexican spotted owl has been at the center of a decades-old conflict between timber companies and environmentalists. In the 1990s, another federal judge issued a similar injunction that lasted roughly 18 months before timber companies and conservationists reached a compromise.

Since then, many environmentalists agree that the New Mexico timber industry has largely shifted to thinning and restoration activities that are both profitable and eco-friendly.

The current injunction was modified to allow personal firewood gathering. But that excluded commercial firewood gathering and other timber management that even WildEarth Guardians argued was too restrictive.

It also left timber businesses in a tough financial position. In a letter from the New Mexico Forest Industry Association to Regional Forester Cal Joyner earlier in October, association Director Brent Racher argued the injunction could cost hundreds of jobs and $9.86 million in lost revenue if it lasts six months.