glenn1
Lifer
Wow, you're just racking up the points for honesty in your "defense" of mother earth, aren't you?
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Forest Service officials knowingly used faulty data of spotted owl habitat to block logging in a California forest, according to court documents obtained by The Washington Times.
The Forest Service did not have a "rational basis" for halting the timber sale to Wetsel-Oviatt Lumber Company, said the previously undisclosed ruling by Federal Claims Court Judge Lawrence S. Margolis. The timber company's lawyer, Gary Stevens, called the Forest Service data "junk science."
The revelation of bad science comes on the heels of other questionable actions taken by federal officials in the name of protecting endangered species. False samples were submitted into a national lynx survey, and in other cases faulty information was used to cut off water to farmers and to establish habitat in several states for endangered fish species. Compensating lumber companies for this and 30 other California timber sales canceled in the 1990s because of the spotted owl already has cost the government $15 million, according to a Forest Service document. In addition, the federal government agreed last week to pay Wetsel-Oviatt $9.5 million for four canceled timber sales. So far the Bald Mountain timber bid is the only case taken to trial.
Judge Margolis ruled the Forest Service action was "arbitrary, capricious and without rational basis." He also found that the officials knew their findings were faulty when they ordered the sale canceled.
Story link
Forest Service officials knowingly used faulty data of spotted owl habitat to block logging in a California forest, according to court documents obtained by The Washington Times.
The Forest Service did not have a "rational basis" for halting the timber sale to Wetsel-Oviatt Lumber Company, said the previously undisclosed ruling by Federal Claims Court Judge Lawrence S. Margolis. The timber company's lawyer, Gary Stevens, called the Forest Service data "junk science."
The revelation of bad science comes on the heels of other questionable actions taken by federal officials in the name of protecting endangered species. False samples were submitted into a national lynx survey, and in other cases faulty information was used to cut off water to farmers and to establish habitat in several states for endangered fish species. Compensating lumber companies for this and 30 other California timber sales canceled in the 1990s because of the spotted owl already has cost the government $15 million, according to a Forest Service document. In addition, the federal government agreed last week to pay Wetsel-Oviatt $9.5 million for four canceled timber sales. So far the Bald Mountain timber bid is the only case taken to trial.
Judge Margolis ruled the Forest Service action was "arbitrary, capricious and without rational basis." He also found that the officials knew their findings were faulty when they ordered the sale canceled.
