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The Pacific Northwest once relied to a great extent on timber as the fuel for its economic engine. Most of the ancient forest has been leveled, doing major damage to salmon, another important economic contributor. Now the region is in transition to other industries including tourism and high-tech as environmental organizations try to protect the remnant forests that remain and bring back viable salmon populations.
By the 1980s, the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest were falling at a breathtaking rate and would have disappeared altogether in not many more years. A lawsuit to protect the northern spotted owl -- followed by litigation to force the federal agencies to follow the law -- cut the rate of logging dramatically. Tom Turner explains.
Read the story of the northern spotted owl
Federal efforts to weaken regulations governing logging on steep, landslide-prone hillsides successfully rebuffed
Developers and farm groups fail to convince judge that hatchery-bred salmon are legally identical to wild salmon.
A judge in Seattle rules that counting hatchery salmon when considering Endangered Species Act listings is illegal.
To justify an increase in logging on steep slopes in the Northwest, the Forest Service ignored advice from leading scientists including some from the Fish and Wildlife Service.
An attempt by irrigators to overturn minimum flows for salmon is rejected.
Permits for timber sales in the Rogue River Basin were based on "arbitrary and capricious" statements, and not scientific fact.
Orcas get recognition by National Marine Fisheries Service, critical habitat established
A hastily drawn biological opinion, issued under pressure from the former governor's office, cannot survive the light of day.
Salmon battles enter new stage as judge tells agencies to try again
An endangered tropical bird gets a chance to recover when critical habitat is established
Juvenile salmon on the Columbia and Snake rivers have a greater chance of surviving into adulthood, thanks to action by Earthjustice.
Settlement reached in case challenging a biop allowing development in critical salmon habitat.
Ninth Circuit denies challenge to Forest Service decision that protects endangered chinook salmon and steelhead trout.
EPA agrees to block pesticide application adjacent to salmon streams.
Timber company had tried to intimidate environmental groups
Imperiled species now an important step closer to federal protection
Federal government is failing to protect salmon from harmful effects of logging under the Northwest Forest Plan.
In 2002, a federal court ordered EPA to start the process of ensuring pesticides will not jeopardize the survival of threatened and endangered salmon.
Logging in the Pacific northwest had just about wiped out the northern spotted owl by 1980. What followed was ten years of political mayhem.Starting after World War II, and accelerating rapidly with the administration of Ronald Reagan, the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest were being felled at a rate that would seem to make them disappear altogether within decades. Litigation to save the northern spotted owl from extinction slowed the rate of logging dramatically in the nick of time.
In February 2001, a federal judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers must ensure that the lower Snake River dams comply with water quality standards.
In April 2001, Earthjustice won a major court order finding that the Bureau of Reclamation had violated the Endangered Species Act by diverting scarce water to irrigators at the expense of threatened coho salmon.
