FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   ENR
NOVEMBER 17, 1994                                            (202) 616-2765
                                                         TDD (202) 514-1888

                     UNDER CHALLENGE FROM BOTH SIDES, 
          ADMINISTRATION DEFENDS BALANCED FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN
                   AS SPOTTED OWL TRIAL OPENS IN SEATTLE

     SEATTLE --  Facing legal challenges from environmental
groups and the timber industry against the Clinton
Administration's northwest forest management plan, Assistant
Attorney General Lois Schiffer travelled to Seattle to present
the federal government's opening argument today before the U.S.
District Court.  The plan has been challenged by numerous
environmental groups who seek to halt all logging, as well as by
the timber industry, which wants to halt the plan as a step
toward expanding logging throughout the federal forests.
     The suit will affect the management of more than 24 million
acres of public land in Washington, Oregon and Northern
California that lie within the range of the northern spotted owl,
a threatened species.
     "The Administration's forest management plan offers a
balanced way out of the gridlock that has captured Northern
California and the Pacific Northwest," said Schiffer.  "It is
time to move forward."
     In 1991, logging was brought to a halt in old-growth forest
habitat suitable for the northern spotted owl after several
organizations sued under the National Environmental Policy Act. 
The Administration's plan, announced on April 13, 1994,
culminated more than a year of interagency planning and led to a
court decision June 6 ending the injunctions against logging in
the affected areas.
     The Administration's initiative includes economic relief for
those affected by changes in forest management practice, the
creation of a science-based natural resources management plan,
and unprecedented cooperation among federal agencies.  In the
five months since the last logging injunction was lifted, more
than $126 million in grants has been awarded, 400 restoration
projects have put people to work and enhanced selected waterways,
and timber sales have been allowed to move forward.
     Various parties at today's hearing seek to bring the
Administration's plan to a halt.  Seventeen plaintiffs argue that
the administration's plan does not adequately protect the
northern spotted owl, including the Seattle Audubon Society, the
Forest Conservation Council, Save the West, the Native Forest
Council and the Sierra Club.  These plaintiffs seek to again halt
all logging in the affected regions.
     The Northwest Forest Resources Council (a coalition of
industry groups) and an association of counties in Oregon and
California have filed three actions in Washington, D.C. seeking
to nullify the plan and alleging that the government violated the
Federal Advisory Committee Act, the National Environmental Policy
Act and various federal land management statutes.  Their effort
to halt the plan is a step towards seeking to expand the timber
harvesting in he affected areas.  One of these cases was moved to
the District Court in Seattle this summer, and the other two have
been stayed pending the outcome of this action.
     "We have tried to find a middle course," said Schiffer.  "We
have tried to protect old growth forests while providing a
sustainable timber harvest.  The administration's forest plan is
comprehensive and broad based.  It moves beyond the issue of owls
and provides a plan to wisely manage an entire ecosystem for the
benefit of people, their jobs, the environment, and all the
species that depend on old growth forest -- of which the spotted
owl is just one."
     Schiffer also indicted that the plan represents
unprecedented cooperation among federal agencies whose previous
planning efforts had been independent and sometimes at odds with
each other:  the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service,
the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Marine Fisheries
Service.
     Five cases were at issue in today's hearing:  Seattle
Audubon Society v. Lyons, Forest Conservation Council v. Lyons,
Save the West v. Lyons, Native Forest Council v. Babbitt, and The
Sierra Club v. Espy.  In addition, claims raised by the industry
win two other cases filed in Washington, D.C.  were also heard:
Northwest Forest Council v. Thomas and Northwest Resource Council
v. Dombeck.
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