The U.S. Forest Service lost 44 court cases during the past two years in which the agency was found guilty of violating environmental laws by a federal court, according to an internal memo released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The rate of adverse court findings has been steadily growing with each passing year of the Bush Administration.

In Northern California, the Happy Camp Ranger District of the Klamath National Forest is proposing the 358-acre Elk Thin timber sale. The Elk Creek watershed is already fragmented from past logging and roadbuilding activities, and it is designated a "key watershed" for salmon recovery.

Meanwhile, in Southern Oregon, the US Forest Service threatens to jumpstart their controversial logging in Biscuit Fire Old Growth Reserves. The Forest Service is wanting rush in and log thousands of acres of old-growth reserves affected by the Biscuit fire before a court can determine if the logging is illegal. A court ordered injunction that prevented logging in seven timber sales was recently lifted. As a result, sensitive old-growth reserves are now imminently threatened by the Fiddler, Steed, Berry, Wafer, Hobson, Lazy, and Briggs Six logging sales. The Forest Service is trying to saw through these sales before a court case on the legality of the logging can be heard by a judge on March 22, 2005.

See the Forest Service summary of environmental cases it lost in FY 2003 and 2004.

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