The region's tree-huggers think the timber wars may have just tipped in their favor. One thing's for sure: Its certainly getting harder and harder for the logging companies to justify their mission. Although they still have a powerful Senate apologist in Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), who has made a habit of sending pork home to the industry and relaxing restrictions on their work, Gorton may be something of a relic. These days, the dominant economies of the Northwest are high-tech and tourism, both of which come to Oregon, Washington and northernmost California mostly for the scenery. Lost logging jobs are not the hot-button issue they once were, especially when the tourists start asking why that beautiful old-growth forest over there has so many bald spots. Dwyers ruling essentially puts most of the industry on hold while he thinks about what to do next. Loggers will be whispering in one ear, environmentalists in the other. And the unsatisfying deal that Clinton cut may be up for renegotiation again.
Hoot! Hoot! The Spotted Owl Strikes Again
-
Share
-
Read Later
-
Judge William L. Dwyer is back, and hes got the spotted owl with him. The Seattle Federal District Court judge who in 1991 put the kibosh on logging in the old-growth forests in the Northwest and then lifted his own ban after President Clinton came up with a compromise deal in 1994 is in an ornery mood again. Under the deal, two federal agencies, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, were supposed to do wildlife surveys of would-be logging areas checking for risk to the old-growth habitats of Mr. Owls friends, such as the red tree vole before allowing timber companies in. Dwyer says the agencies were in Big Timbers pocket, and his ruling blocks nine major logging deals and threatens to stop dozens of others.