San Francisco, CA — California’s timber industry has struck gold thanks to a decision handed down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Judge Morrison C. England overruled an amendment to the 2004 Conservation Framework that would have only allowed the industry to thin trees up to 12 inches in diameter. By eliminating that amendment loggers can continue to thin trees up to 30 inches in diameter thereby clearing the forest of additional potential fuels for devastating forest fires.
Mike Albrecht, president of Sierra Resource Management and TuCare commented, "This ruling will allow the Forest Service to keep thinning the forest, keep managing the forest at the level they are now and it overrules some of the recent appeal requests so it’s very good news for the timber industry.
It’s kind of some good news coming on top of other good news and I just feel there’s some momentum building to maybe get our mill (S.P.I. Standard Mill) back open and move ahead.
I think anything could be appealed and moved up to a higher court but usually when the Ninth Circuit rules it seems like those things stick. I would be very surprised if this would go to the Supreme Court.
I think we’ve finally gotten this laid to rest and we can start focusing on what we need to do and that is thin these forests and prevent catastrophic fire."
Written by bill.johnson@mlode.com
This post was last modified on 10/05/2009 4:31 pm