Background

Dismantling the Northwest Forest Plan's Environmental Protections

Timber Industry Demands to Triple the Cut

Recently, the timber industry has begun an aggressive campaign to undermine the Northwest Forest Plan. In late 2002, according to documents released through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by Earthjustice, the government revealed that industry's goal is to triple logging in Northwest forests. These documents show that industry has identified the specific environmental obstacles to reaching that goal. To succeed, the industry demanded that the Bush administration remove existing protections for salmon, clean water, and old-growth forests. The timber industry groups outlined five needs:

1. Weaken the Aquatic Conservation Strategy

2. Weaken northern spotted owl Endangered Species Act protections

3. Weaken marbled murrelet Endangered Species Act protections

4. Eliminate the Survey and Manage program

5. Weaken ecosystem and species protections on 2.2 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land

Learn more detail about the timber industry's scheme and the successful Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that exposed it

Read the secret strategy memos sent by the timber industry to the administration

After laying out its demands, the timber industry filed three new lawsuits, resurrected a long-dormant 1994 case, and urged the Bush administration to capitulate to the five-point plan in settlement "negotiations" for these cases.