Lumber Industry Northwestern United States

A ban on timber sales that has brought logging ever closer to a standstill across the Northwest was lifted Monday by the federal judge who imposed it three years ago. But the order was not expected to shake loose much--if any--new timber in the short term, as legal challenges await the Clinton Administration's proposal for managing the 24 million acres of federal land in the forests of Washington, Oregon and Northern California that are home to the threatened spotted owl. U.S.

The Clinton Administration on Thursday filed a plan to protect the old-growth habitat of the northern spotted owl and asked a judge to lift a ban that has halted federal timber sales in the Pacific Northwest. "The plan outlines a strategy for preserving our natural resources, while recognizing the role timber plays in the Northwest economy," Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy said in a written statement. In addition to the forest plan, Administration officials said they filed a motion asking U.S.

A federal judge ruled Monday that the Clinton Administration broke the law in developing its plan for management of national forests in the Pacific Northwest but refused a timber industry request to block implementation of the plan. U.S.

In a final report on its plan to protect the endangered spotted owl, the Clinton Administration on Wednesday proposed reducing sales of timber from the Northwest's forests by a further 10% and almost doubled its estimates of jobs that will be lost as a result. In a final environmental impact statement, the Administration said it will propose further limits on logging alongside stream banks on federal lands--a move cheered by environmentalists.

Weary of the subject the nation may be, but the Northwest's epic forestry war is shifting ground rather than subsiding after a presidential decree. Strife between loggers and preservationists is now headed inland to the vast, publicly held tree-scapes known hereabouts as the "eastside forests" of Washington and Oregon, to the Sierra Nevada of California, and to the forests of Idaho and Montana.

When he thrust himself into the Pacific Northwest timber dispute, President Clinton apparently hoped to craft a split-the-difference compromise that would win support from both sides of the issue. It was clear Thursday that he had failed to do that. "We know our solutions may not make everybody happy--indeed, they may not make anybody happy," the President said as he announced his timber-management plan and acknowledged that finding the remedy had been more difficult than he had expected.

President Clinton, vowing to "break the logjam" over timber harvests in the Pacific Northwest, on Thursday unveiled a $1.2-billion plan to limit logging in the region. It was met with a torrent of angry recriminations from both environmentalists and logging interests throughout Washington, Oregon and California. The debate over protecting the ancient habitat of the endangered spotted owl has been "a drama that has paralyzed the Pacific Northwest for too long," Clinton said.

The Clinton Administration, in a bid to end a seven-year war of wills over logging in the ancient habitat of the spotted owl, today is expected to set a firm annual limit on timber harvesting, begin initiatives to protect the streams and rivers of the Pacific Northwest and propose a plan to ease the economic blow to loggers, Administration sources said Wednesday.

As his Administration prepares to announce its decision on the future of the Northwest's public forests, what to cut and what to save--meaning both trees and jobs--President Clinton is finding one promise easy to live up to. As he predicted, he is making everybody upset. "And that's without anybody seeing anything yet--quite a feat. Wait until he puts something on the table," says Bill Arthur, Northwest Regional Director of the Sierra Club. Behind closed doors in Washington, D.C.

Government scientists will recommend that President Clinton reduce timber harvests in the Northwest's ancient forests by at least 60% from what they were in the mid-1980s, Administration officials say. None of the alternatives the scientists are devising would let loggers cut more than 2 billion board feet of wood a year from national forests in Oregon and Washington, said one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.