(SitNews) - Gabe Scott of Cascadia Wildlands, lead plaintiff in one of the environmental lawsuits against the Big Thorne timber sale, announced this afternoon that Judge Beistline (U.S. District Court, Anchorage) has granted a temporary injunction. The Big Thorne timber sale involves the proposed logging of more than 6,000 acres of old-growth coastal rainforest in one of the most sensitive areas of the Tongass National Forest.

Scott said, “The ‘injunction pending appeal’ will be in force for 14 days from tomorrow. Logging and road building could commence on April 16, 2015 unless the 9th Circuit Court of appeals takes other action.”

The other plaintiffs in the suit are the Greater Southeast Alaska Conservation Community (GSAACC), Greenpeace, the Center for Biological Diversity and The Boat Company. Those groups intend to ask the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay of the old-growth logging project until the Circuit Court has an opportunity to review the case. They are represented by Crag Law Center.

Two other Big Thorne lawsuits have been filed by another consortium of organizations, and Judge Beistline recently combined the cases into one docket (Case No. 1:14-cv-00013-RRB, in the Alaska District Court).

Larry Edwards, a Greenpeace campaigner in Sitka, Alaska, said, “We are pleased to have this reprieve from logging that could otherwise have started tomorrow, causing irreversible loss of old-growth habitat that is vital to wildlife, hunters and other forest users and businesses.

"The Big Thorne project would be the most devastating logging project in the Tongass in the last 20 years so we're glad to see this forest get even a brief reprieve," said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Not only would it wipe out 6,000 acres of old-growth forest - including some trees approaching 1,000 years of age - but it would be a death sentence for Alexander Archipelago wolves on Prince of Wales Island."

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News:

Cascadia Wildlands
www.cascwild.org/

Greenpeace
www.greenpeace.org

Crag Law Center
www.crag.org/

SitNews ©2015
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

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