Judge Stops Logging On National Monument

Some of the worlds largest and oldest trees have been saved the saw after a federal judge issued an injunction and questioned the lumber companies reasons for not cutting the trees when originally given permission.

Mercury News: “A federal judge halted the Bush administration’s bid to keep logging 2,000 acres in Giant Sequoia National Monument, saying he “called into question” the scientific analysis used to justify cutting in a preserve that houses two-thirds of the world’s largest trees.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, ruling in a lawsuit brought by environmentalists, also questioned whether fire control was the government’s real motive for allowing commercial logging in the monument. The so-called “Saddle Project” was approved years ago, but cutting only commenced this summer, when timber prices were high.

The government, Breyer wrote late Friday in issuing a preliminary injunction barring further logging, “waited five years to execute this contract because of unfavorable timber prices.””

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