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Show Page A8 - THE DAILY HERALD, Provo, Utah, Tuesday, September 20, 1994 Logging firm, U.S. trying to settle suit over spotted owl the objections of the Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency said logging would By ERIC PRYNE Seattle Times - SEATTLE An Olympic Peninsula lawsuit that shaped up as a major test of the Endangered Species Act may never go to trial. The Justice Department sued & Middleton last December. One sign of the case's significance was the company it attracted. Attorneys for the Northwest Forestry Association and American Forest and Paper Association joined Anderson & Middleton's defense team. Two Audubon Society chapters, represented by the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, were permitted to intervene, over industry objections. When the suit was filed, the Clinton administration heralded it as a sign it was more serious than the Bush administration about prohabitecting endangered-specie- s Anderson agreement. The Endangered Species Act prohibits anyone from harming or harassing a protected creature. The Fish and Wildlife Service, which enforces the law, has long interpreted that mandate to also prohibit logging, development or other habitat modification likely to result in harm to an endangered or threatened species. The timber industry and property-rights groups argue that interpretation exceeds the law's scope. Federal courts have handed down conflicting rulings. The Olympic Peninsula case, U.S. vs. Anderson & Middleton Logging Co., was widely expected to serve as the next, perhaps climactic, test. Federal restrictions on logging On the Olympic Peninsula and other lands west of Interstate 5 in 1,000-year-o- miles. While most nests are on federal lands, many circles spill onto state and private forests. The Washington Forest Protection Association, which represents large timberland owners, says circles cover 600,-00- 0 acres of its members' lands. Anderson & Middleton's property falls within the circle of the Queets River corridor owl pair, 1.5 miles from the center. Less than one-thir- d of the land inside that circle is older forest, below the Fish and Wildlife Service's 40 percent threshold. ld Previous logging has fragmented and "seriously depleted" habitat for the pair, government officials argued in court papers filed earlier this year. It's "very likely" the birds use Anderson & Middle-ton'- s land, they said, and logging will result in death or injury. Fish and Wildlife Service officials also said the marbled murre-le- t, a threatened seabird, probably nests on the property. Anderson & Middleton has argued there's no evidence owls use its property, or that the site is necessary for the birds' survival. It also argues no one has seen the Landowners who log forests deemed suitable habitat for spotted owls still may be prosecuted, he warned. He acknowledged one factor in owls since 1992. the decision to seek a settlement was the Fish and Wildlife ServOn the same day it filed suit ice's earlier approval of logging on i against Anderson & Middleton last Quinault Indian Nation land near ' winter, the Clinton administration Anderson & Middleton's propertproposed to do away with owl circles in mucK" of the Northwest. yOfficials said they weren't needed The company s attorneys had to assure recovery of the species. questioned in court papers how the But the administration said cirgovernment could approve harvest cles should be retained on the by one landowner, then sue to block another from logging in the Olympic Peninsula and in other same area. areas such as the Interstate 90 corThe Quinault permit was a big ridor deemed vital for getting the hole in the government's case, said owl off the endangered-specie- s Chris West of the Northwest For list. QQDnDDcm rr CELLULAR S3 iliii k sH imt ilPil awdiiL; kkJiVJ Lillys U B till ftSWK 4 4 wants to bar some bus service By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press Writer CvM Almost TRUMBULL, Conn. every afternoon, Kiko Boyd and Tim McNeil hop a bus in Bridgeport and head to the mall in suburban Trumbull, where they check out the CDs and eat french fries, but mostly just hang out. They're not alone. On weekends, the corridors of the sprawling Trumbull Shopping Park are s. clogged with Mall officials complain that the crowds sometimes bring in more trouble than dollars. They've come up with a plan to keep the Bridgeteen-ager- port youths out: bar buses from stopping at the mall on Friday and Saturday nights, the two most popular cruising nights for teens. Community groups call the plan racist. "There are a lbt ofkids wno afe troublemakers, but they're not all from Bridgeport, and I think this is pointing the finger at Bridgeport kids, and it's not fair," said Aima n Maya, a member of the Puerto Ri-ca- Coalition. The Greater Bridgeport Transit District intends to ask a federal judge to ensure that bus service continues. Mall officials deny their plan is discriminatory, but have agreed to wait for a court decision. "The volume of kids and the be- - s from Bridgeport, and Tim McNeil, both Conn., eat lunch at the food court of the Trumball Shopping Park in Kiko Boyd, left, teen-ager- Trumball, Conn. Other youths say they ,get has, rassed regardless of color. Paul a white from Bridgeport, said guards pester most groups of teens who hang out in the corridors outside Fiienes, Abraham & Strauss and other stores. "You don't come to the mall to spend money all the time. Yqu come havior concern us," said Gary Karl, the mall's general manager. "We just are unable to deal with it effec- Ko-chis- tively." The idea of banning the buses came after one teen shot another in the leg last year at a store entrance just yards from the bus stop. Karl said it was an isolated incident. But the fear" of crime, lingers, in Trumbull, a just over the border from Bridgeport, which led the state in murders last year with 63. McNeil, 16, and Boyd, 14, who are both black, said that mall security guards often harass them, ordering them to split up if they are in groups of more than five. "Truthfully, I think it is racial," McNeil said. "I can't say no one causes trouble, but half the kids who come here want to buy things and they get kicked out." cjuiet-subu- to see your friends and look at giris," Kechiss said. "They ' don't likVthat.'" . Mall operators have proposed rb stopping buses from coming to the; mall after 6 p.m. on Fridays and 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Karl said the plan is intended to deal w ith a legitimate safety issue. 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Layawayfon Christmas Hi I wti rav rriy iwmw iiVSmX Some restrictions apply. Ore mirim Kispm oil j rea jrje j t ! 1 Mall ultra Classic M... J Bridgeport from stopping on mall grounds 'on", Friday and Saturday nights to keep the number, of; teens hanging out in the mall to a minimum. rs Annual Parlunq Lot Fitness Sale nirTDairccoi79 FfrCcfoy G OaGairtloy nlii7l Charger irA-- exit a bus in the parking lot of the Trumball Shopping Park in Trumball, Conn. The mall has proposed stopping buses from the City of u 30 Sm"er 20 Lighter Includes Battery Includes Overnight (Aj) MOTOROLA mw AP Photo Teen-age- ley is Offering a few Lower Price on the Smaller, Lishter Motorola 1 ed he said. Kipnis, the assistant U.S. attorney, said any settlement wouldn't apply to other property owners and won't signal any weakening of the federal government's resolve to defend endangered species. U r Washington state, the "owl circles" have a radius of 2.7 which include some cedars 12 feet in diameter, in return for leaving wider protected strips along streams than state logging regulations require. Anderson & Middleton might also manage other lands it owns to provide habitat for migrating owls, off-limi- ts fe" ter." tat. But Smitch said the broad outlines of a tentative settlement would allow Anderson & Middle-to- n to log much of the 72 acres, on state and private lands to protect spotted owls have been widely observed in Washington since 1990, but have never before been challenged. The restrictions have put thousands of acres effectively to harvest. The principals in the case aren't saying much about what prompted them to seek a settlement, or who blinked first. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Kipnis said the decision was mutual. Anderson & Middleton, which forced the issue last November, declined comment. The Hoquiam, Wash., firm notified the government it intended to clear-cu- t 72 acres of virgin cedar, hemlock and Douglas fir it owns on the Quinault Indian Reservation near the Washington coast over B.C. wide-rangin- probably was used by a spotted-ow- l pair discovered in 1992 in the nearby Queets River corridor of Olympic National Park. out a settlement. The trial was to begin Oct. 3 in the court of U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle but was postponed for three months to give the parties time to reach an ma estry Association. g The spotted owl is a creature that favors older forests. In 1990, shortly after the bird was added to the endangered-specie- s list, the Fish and Wildlife Service advised landowners they could log without risking prosecution so long as older forest still covered at least 40 percent of the land within broad circles centered on each owl nest or "activity cen- violate the Endangered Species Act by destroying habitat that The federal government, the timber industry and environmentalists are negotiating a settlement of the suit, the first filed by the government to enforce restrictions on logging on private lands to protect the northern spotted owl. "They all began to look at their cases, and they all thought they had risks." said Curt Smitch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, brought in recently to help work 4 Open M-F- ri 10am - 7pm Sat 10-5p- m Closed Sundays |