Three timber companies filed a lawsuit Monday in Oregon’s Federal District Court to lift a logging ban in national forests caused by the federal government’s shutdown.
“It makes zero sense for the cash-strapped government to shut down operations that pay millions into the United States Treasury,” said Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council, in a press release. “These companies employ loggers and truck drivers that need to be making money to feed their families.”
The U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management have contracts to log their lands with about 400 companies nationwide — including Eugene-based Murphy Company, High Cascade Inc, which operates a sawmill in Hood River, and South Bay Timber, LLC, which has operations in Ashland and Williams.
Starting around Oct. 7, contractors started receiving suspension notices telling them they had to pack up their operations and get out of the forests within seven days, AFRC spokeswoman Ann Forest Burns said. Some contractors were given orders to stop logging immediately.
“A timber operation isn’t something you can turn on and off like a light switch. Once equipment has to be moved out, it can be months before it can be moved back in,” Partin said in the release. “For example, operators have waited through the fire season for helicopters to be available. If they can’t fly, they will start work on private contracts and it could be another year before they can come back. Meanwhile, downed timber rots on the ground.”
From The Statesman Journal: https://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20131016/NEWS/310160064/Three-companies-sue-lift-logging-ban