Obama Admin. Scraps Bush Old Growth Logging Increase in Oregon.

[irishbobcat]

Obama Admin. Scraps Bush Old Growth Logging Increase in Oregon. By Jessica Leber, ClimateWire, July 17, 2009. "The Interior Department is dropping controversial plans to dramatically increase logging in western Oregon's forests, some of the nation's densest carbon stores. The move scraps a Bush-era decision to rezone 2.6 million acres of Bureau of Land Management forests, which would have tripled current logging production and opened old-growth forests to clear-cutting. The attempt prompted a lawsuit by 13 environmental groups after the rule was finalized late last year. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar yesterday called the Western Oregon Plan Revisions "legally indefensible" because BLM had ignored key Endangered Species Act consultation requirements... Conservation groups proclaimed the announcement a victory not only for wildlife but for the climate, as well... A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the Pacific Northwest's forests housed some of the world's highest levels of carbon per acre of land. In addition, in its environmental analysis, BLM admitted that its plan would increase fire risk... big trees in old forests are more resistant to fires, and logging them leaves leftover wood that is more flammable