A federal district court ruled on April 29 that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is not doing enough to protect endangered fish and ordered government agencies to stop dozens of timber sales until they have ensured salmon and trout will not go extinct. The ruling is expected to result in increased protection for salmon and trout on public lands throughout the West, starting in Oregon╣s Umpqua basin. The ruling by Judge Barbara J. Rothstein arose from a case brought by fishing and conservation groups, including Umpqua Watersheds, seeking greater protection for the endangered Umpqua River cutthroat trout. The Umpqua National Forest and Roseburg Bureau of Land Management (BLM) offered dozens of timber sales last year in areas with endangered trout or salmon. Judge Rothstein╣s ruling makes it clear that the sales must meet the standards set by the Endangered Species Act for protecting fish. Wherever federal agencies are planning timber sales that could affect salmon or trout, this decision will apply.

Imperiled fish, and commercial fishers, cannot withstand more of the same clearcutting and road-building that has degraded aquatic habitat and caused the current fish crisis. The judge found that the federal government failed to prove the Umpqua cutthroat trout can survive the extensive logging, clearcutting and road-building authorized under the Northwest Forest Plan. While the ruling was a very welcome reprieve for many beautiful places, it does not apply to sales above natural barriers to endangered salmon. Sales within endangered fish habitat that were sold under the Salvage Rider, which exempted the agencies from complying with all environmental laws, are not affected by the ruling. About a dozen of the ancient forest clearcuts that the judge ruled to be illegal are shielded by the Salvage Rider. The court did stop 24 timber sales.

Agencies often propose large clearcuts in old-growth forests, thereby opening the forest canopy and causing rain to run off the steep slopes faster, stressing the creeks below and sometimes resulting in landslides. Because the Northwest Forest Plan prohibits such watershed degradation, the agencies │compensate▓ for the new degradation by repairing some old logging roads. However, the judge said that, │The road mitigation achieved was slight.▓

The ultimate fate of the halted sales remains unclear. For instance, in spite of the judge╣s clear agreement with the │evidence of adverse effects,▓ Roseburg BLM will not admit that clearcutting the public╣s ancient forests degrades watersheds. BLM╣s response is: │The ruling by Judge Rothstein stated that the affected sales were îprocedurally╣ out of compliance with ACS [Aquatic Conservation Strategy]... that NMFS had assumed agency compliance... not that the agencies were in non-compliance.▓ In other words, a little shift in paper work is all they feel is needed to correct the problem.