Background

Bush Administration Accedes to Industry Demands

The timber industry has long chafed against the protections of the Northwest Forest Plan. Despite decades of extensive clearcuts and widespread roadbuilding that severely degraded public forestland, industry lobby groups have opposed restrictions to preserve remaining old growth and protect endangered species. Their efforts culminated in 2002, when the Bush administration fully acceded to the industry's demands and initiated a multi-stage process to dismantle the plan, piece by piece.

• In March 2004, the administration completed an overhaul the Aquatic Conservation Strategy that could fundamentally alter its protections. The amendments seek to undo court rulings that require adequate protections for salmon and eliminate the need for the government to ensure that salmon will be protected when it approves logging and other land degrading activities.
  Read the comments submitted by Earthjustice on the proposed weakening of the Aquatic Conservation Strategy.

• In January 2003, the administration quickly and quietly settled friendly industry lawsuits involving spotted owls and marbled murrelets, pledging to review their status and rethink the critical habitat for each. For the first time, the Fish and Wildlife Service contracted out the Endangered Species Act review to private companies, bypassing its own scientists with decades of experience with both birds. Results for the marbled murrelet are expected in April 2004, although the completion of owl's review was recently pushed back to November 2004 – after the presidential election.
  Read about the settlement of the timber industry lawsuits involving the spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

• In March 2002, the administration settled an industry lawsuit involving the Survey and Manage program. Pursuant to the settlement, the administration is proposing to eliminate the program and revert to optional protections. Even by government estimates, this revision alone is expected to double the current logging in the Northwest.
  To keep current on the effort to eliminate the Survey and Manage program, check the Oregon Natural Resources Council website.

• In August 2003, the administration settled a 1994 industry suit challenging the original Northwest Forest Plan in order to re-interpret environmental protections for Bureau of Land Management forests in western Oregon known as "O&C lands." The lawsuit -- having languished in the courts for close to a decade and having twice been dismissed -- had little chance of success; yet the administration used it as justification for reverting to an outdated legal interpretation that attempts to make logging the dominant use of the O&C lands.