A federal judge has lifted an injunction barring timber cutting and oil and gas drilling in Shawnee National Forest.
Judge J. Phil Gilbert dissolved the injunction in an order issued Tuesday. Judge Gilbert originally granted the injunction in 1996 in response to a lawsuit filed by the Regional Association of Concerned Environmentalist and others against the U.S. Forest Service.
Oral arguments were heard on a motion to dissolve the injunction last year. The forest service argued that earlier shortcomings in the forest management plane cited by Judge Gilbert had been remedied with a new final environmental impact statement and the 2006 revised forest plan.
Amanda Patrick, Spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, says lifting the injunction will not change anything. Patrick says the process they now use for public input and for evaluating potential uses for the Shawnee will remain the same. The injunction dates back the Forest Service’s 1992 management plan that allowed oil and gas leasing and ATV use on the Shawnee. RACE and other environmental groups successfully challenged those uses as well as the Forest Service’s failure to adequately assess the impact the management plan would have on species in the Shawnee National Forest such as the migratory songbird.
In issuing the order, Judge Gilbert writes the goals that prompted the 1996 injunction have been achieved. He notes the portions of the 1992 management plan that prompted the injunction are not part of the current forest management plan.
