PORTLAND, Oregon, March 4, 2002 (ENS) - A lawsuit from Oregon's fishing and environmental communities seeks to stop certain logging practices on industrial timberlands that harm coho salmon in Oregon's North Coast region.

"The state routinely authorizes industrial logging that harms coho salmon, in violation of the Endangered Species Act," said Patti Goldman, attorney with law firm Earthjustice. "All my clients want is for the state to stop handing out permits for the same kind of logging that helped bring these fish to the brink of extinction."

Earthjustice filed the complaint on behalf of Pacific Rivers Council, Audubon Society of Portland, Coast Range Association, Native Fish Society and Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations.

The lawsuit was filed against James Brown in his role as the Oregon state forester. The Department of Forestry (ODF) is responsible for approval of thousands of logging plans every year in Oregon, many of which affect water quality and coho habitat.

"Commercial coho salmon fishing in Oregon is decimated. We refuse to stand idly by and watch while state officials authorize destructive industrial logging in watershed after watershed," said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, the largest organization of commercial fishing families on the west coast. "The Department should be protecting Oregon's irreplaceable salmon runs, not supervising their destruction."

The lawsuit targets three specific categories of logging practices on industrial timberlands:

1. clearcut logging on high risk sites, such as steep slopes, where landslides could obliterate coho salmon habitat
2. logging near small and medium fish bearing streams with the minimal buffers now required under the state's rules: a 20 foot no cut zone
3. logging without any no cut buffers on small streams that feed into salmon habitat, allowed under the current rules

The groups are asking the court to stop the state forester from authorizing these practices.

After catastrophic landslides in 1996 that killed five people, ODF foresters began prohibiting logging on high risk sites where landslides pose a risk to human life. Yet foresters still approve the same kind of logging on high risk slopes where landslides could bury threatened salmon.

"Clearcutting in unstable headwater areas significantly increases the risk of landslides and the risk of harm to coho downstream," said Mary Scurlock, policy analyst for Pacific Rivers Council, "More landslides plus inadequate riparian protection for small streams is a recipe for coho extinction."

More information on the lawsuit is available at: http://www.pacrivers.org