A federal judge Thursday allowed loggers to go back to work on national forests without waiting for federal agencies to send out paperwork lifting logging bans prompted by the government shutdown.
Following a hearing in Medford, U.S. District Judge Owen Panner signed a temporary restraining order lifting the logging ban immediately.
The timber industry had sued the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management, arguing that shutting down logging was not authorized by the Office and Management and Budget guidance to federal agencies on the shutdown, or the timber sale contracts themselves.
After Congress resumed funding the government, the Forest Service and BLM said they were lifting the logging ban and would begin notifying timber purchasers. But timber companies did not want to wait, because rain or snow could shut them out of continuing to work at any time.
“Throughout the process we have argued with the government that the suspension orders were without merit,” Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council, said in a statement. “This ruling vindicates that position. The sad thing is that while government employees will earn back pay, there is little likelihood that logging or mill employees affected by the illegal suspensions will have any way to recoup their lost income.”
From The Register-Guard: https://www.registerguard.com/rg/business/30612830-63/logging-shutdown-government-lake-employees.html.csp