GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Environmentalists have suffered another setback in a campaign to block logging in patches of old growth forests designated for timber harvest under the Northwest Forest Plan.

After volunteers found evidence of more red tree voles than the U.S. Forest Service had discovered on a group of timber sales on the Mount Hood and Willamette national forests, a federal judge ruled the environmental analyses were inadequate, holding up logging.

The Oregon Natural Resources Council had hoped the Forest Service would then withdraw the Straw Devil, Prior, Clark, Borg and Solo timber sales, which had already been awarded to timber companies. But the Forest Service this week came out with amendments to their environmental analyses addressing the shortcomings mentioned by the judge, including gathering more public input.

"It appears they're moving forward with old growth logging, which is a big disappointment to us, because they are ignoring public sentiment and ignoring the fact that there are non-controversial ways of creating jobs and producing timber from thinning young stands," said Doug Heiken of ONRC.

The Forest Service has not changed the timber sales or done any new surveys for red tree voles, but has included information gathered by citizen groups and is giving the public a chance to comment on the environmental analyses, said Middlefork District Ranger Rick Scott. The final decision is due in mid-April.

"Their complaint was one of procedure," Scott said of the lawsuit. "So we've gone back and are in the process of fixing that."

Robbie Robinson, president of Starfire Lumber in Cottage Grove, said he was confident the judge would authorize the Straw Devil timber sale, which Starfire bought. Starfire was planning to log it next September.

"We want that raw material," Robinson said. "We believe the Forest Service can fix whatever things it needed to fix."

ONRC also lost a legal challenge last week to U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which plans to log old growth in southwestern Oregon that is listed as critical habitat for threatened northern spotted owls, but also lies within lands designated for timber harvest.

After environmentalists' lawsuits stopped logging in spotted owl habitat, the Forest Service produced the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. It covers national forests west of the Cascades in Washington, Oregon and Northern California.

The plan set aside large blocks of forest for fish and wildlife habitat, as well as areas where logging could continue, known as matrix lands.

Before logging old growth within matrix, the Forest Service was required to look for rare plant and animals species, in a process known as survey and manage.

To settle a lawsuit brought by the timber industry, the Forest Service and BLM developed new rules easing the survey and manage process to make logging easier. Those standards are expected to be issued in coming weeks. Environmental groups are planning a series of protests throughout the region on Monday.

If the new survey and manage plan is authorized before the Straw Devil and other timber sales gain final approval, those timber sales could become the first to be offered under the new rules, Heiken said.

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