Timber group suing Interior for more trees

To force the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to increase its timber harvest in Western Oregon, the timber industry, including Rough and Ready Lumber Co. in the Illinois Valley and the Swanson Group Manufacturing in Glendale, filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday. The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar seeks to require the BLM to sell at least 502 million board feet each year, the amount provided for under the resource management plans for the agency's districts in Western Oregon. The agency has sold only a small fraction of the annual timber harvest mandated by the plans approved in 2008, according to the lawsuit. For instance, the Medford District's fiscal year 2011 planned target calls for harvesting 19 million board feet out of the 97 million board feet called for in its management plan, the plaintiffs said. Others joining in the lawsuit are the Portland-based American Forest Resource Council, Carpenters Industrial Council, Douglas Timber Operators Inc., C&D Lumber Co. of Riddle, Feres Lumber Co. Inc. of Lyons, Seneca Jones Timber Co. of Eugene and Starfire Lumber Co. Inc. of Cottage Grove. "At a time when our mills need this timber to survive, it is outrageous that the Obama administration is directing the BLM not to sustainably harvest," said AFRC president Tom Partin in a prepared statement...more