Judge blocks Bush plan to log national forests

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Thursday September 21, 2006

San Francisco- A federal judge has blocked a Bush administration policy giving local governors authority over logging in US National Forests, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday. US District Judge Elizabeth Laporte, in a decision released late Wednesday, said that the government's approach ignored both the National Environmental Policy Act and the US Endangered Species Act in formulating its plan for roadless areas on federal public lands.

The ruling reinstitutes the Clinton-era "roadless rule" that bans the construction of new roads on some 200,000 square kilometres of national forest which were in danger of being opened to the logging and mining industries.

Allowing state governors authority over deciding what lands to open to commercial interests failed "to recognize the cumulative national significance of individual local decisions," LaPorte said.

She also found that the Forest Service had failed to consult federal agencies responsible for protecting endangered species.


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I love when Judges decide to stop what he is doing. Maybe with more judges who are not afraid of him things will begin to happen that helps us instead of destroying us.

Unfortunately, he is packing the courts with rightwing judges.

And Judge Laporte will now become a target of the right-wing. I'm sure Bush will appeal this until he finds some right-wing judges who are activist enough to activate the cutting down of the rest of the old growth forests.

It doesn't make sense, does it!

These are people with no beauty in their souls, and no consideration for generations to come.