Advocacy Group Reimburses County on Logging Project

Three months after a groundbreaking decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied an injunction filed by two conservation organizations, an advocacy group has sent Boundary County a check for fees incurred during the Mission Brush logging project.

Boundary County Commissioners hold $234 check from the Lands Council for administrative fees the county sustained during the controversial Mission Brush project.

Boundary County Commissioners received $234.40 from the Spokane-based Lands Council for administrative costs that included filing fees, Xerox copies and other miscellaneous expenses the county had paid during the dispute.

The verdict by the court - which ruled that it had made errors in an earlier decision - paved the way for removal of dead and dying timber. Commissioner Dan Dinning said the ruling could become a landmark for logging in national forests with ramifications leading to improvements in the health and safety of forests.

He also called it a significant victory for Boundary County logging companies like Everhart Logging, which had to suspend its operations for more than a year in the 500-acre Mission Brush area of northern Boundary County.

The dispute had been ongoing since 2004, when the U.S Forest Service first approved the project.

If the U.S 9th Court of Appeals had not reversed its decision on the Mission Brush Project, many in Boundary County and other logging communities believe that it might have been extremely difficult for the Forest Service to ever offer another timber sale.

The lawsuit filed by the Lands Council and Wild West Institute had alleged that the U.S. Forest Service failed to comply with the National Forest Management Act by approving the Mission Brush Project, along with other logging projects, that included selective logging of 3,829 acres in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.