Judges uphold logging

By Justin Post, of The Montana Standard - 06/20/2007

An appeals court panel on Tuesday denied a request from environmental groups to halt logging of beetle-killed timber in and around the Basin Creek watershed south of Butte.

The groups earlier this year asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to suspend the project pending their appeal.

The request was denied Tuesday in an order filed by judges Edward Leavy, Pamela Ann Rymer and Thomas G. Nelson, all Republican appointees to the appeals court.

“Obviously, we are disappointed,” said Tom Woodbury, a Missoula lawyer representing the environmental groups.

Butte officials, on the other hand, applauded the decision as an opportunity to salvage rotting beetle-killed timber while reducing the potential of wildfire impacting Basin Creek reservoir, the source of roughly 40 percent of Butte’s municipal water.

The timber harvest is expected to resume in early July.

“It’s a long time coming,” said Chief Executive Paul Babb. “We need to get in there and get those trees out before they lose their value. This is great news for our county.” R-Y Timber, which holds the contract to log the trees, will start logging in about two weeks, said the company’s resource manager, Ed Regan.

“Within a couple weeks we should have a pretty good size logging operation going on in there,” he said. “If we don’t get it logged this year there isn’t going to be much value in it.” The appeals court has set an Aug. 13 date for lawyers to begin submitting briefs in the case and it could be October, or later, before the court begins hearing arguments, Woodbury said.

It’s unknown whether the 2,600-acre logging project would be completed by then, but Regan said his crews will work until the job is done or they are ordered to stop.

“My understanding is unless I’m told to stop I can go ahead and log and that’s what I intend on doing,” he said.

Environmental groups appealed after U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy of Missoula in April lifted an injunction on the logging.

Judge Molloy said the Forest Service completed an analysis showing the project would not significantly impact soils.

Yet Woodbury, who represents Native Ecosystems Council, Wildwest Institute and Alliance for the Wild Rockies, thinks the project would be a bane to the environment.

The project includes clearcutting 1,100 acres and building 14 miles of new roads. Woodbury argues the work could impact black-backed woodpeckers, northern goshawks and the American pine martens.

— Reporter Justin Post may be reached via e-mail at justin.post@lee.net or by telephone, 496-5572.