A federal judge in Portland has overturned a Bush-era plan to increase logging on forests in southwestern Oregon.
The Western Oregon Plan Revisions — or “whopper” — intended to dramatically increase logging on Bureau of Land Management forests.
The Obama Administration withdrew the WOPR last year.
But a Washington, D.C. judge ruled last March that the timber industry was correct – that the withdrawal was improper and the WOPR should come back. But now, Portland judge Dennis Hubel has ruled in favor of environmental groups and the Obama Administration.
He found the WOPR itself is illegal. BLM spokesman Michael Campbell says the ruling won’t change the agency’s approach much, short-term, because the WOPR had a slow phase-in. Longer term?
“We hope to have some additional information about how we’re going to be moving forward into the future here, within the next several months,” he said.
The BLM is testing out pilot projects and looking into a collaborative settlement process for the affected forests. Members of Congress are also considering legislation.
(This was first reported for opbnews.org.)
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