Lands Council appeals to Ninth Circuit Court

Regehr and Everhart continue to face uphill battle

By KATHY NUSSBERGER

Managing Editor

On Christmas Day, Washington and Montana based environmental groups filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in response to a Federal judge's order on Dec. 18, denying their request for an injunction prohibiting local logging companies from moving forward with their federally owned Mission Brush contracts.

Gary Regehr, owner of Regehr Logging and Jerry Everhart, owner of Everhart Logging have faced difficulties with these contracts ever since they won the bids.

U.S. District Judge, Edward J. Lodge said in his opinion that the plaintiffs, Lands Council and Wildwest Institute, failed to show the possibility of irreparable harm. "In addition, two timber contracts have already been finalized and those parties have already undertaken plans and expended resources in reliance on the contracts. By waiting to file their suit and motions until weeks before the proposed projects were to begin, plaintiffs have manipulated the apparent urgency of their motion for an injunction and now leave these contracts and this project in jeopardy of being delayed yet another fire season. Accordingly, the motion for preliminary injunction is denied. The renewed motion for a temporary restraining order is deemed moot."

"Regehr and Everhart, as a condition of their contract agreements, had to put up a lot of cash with the government as a performance guarantee or bond," Bonners Ferry Mayor Darrell Kerby said. "This was to ensure that the citizens of America are protected in the event of the companies going bankrupt, or their owners dying or absconding between the time they begin taking logs out of the region and making their first payment to the government."

Kerby added that right after this money was deposited with the government, the Lands Council in Spokane, Wash., and the Wild West Institute from Missoula, Mont., stepped in with a lawsuit to prevent the sale, thus freezing all of the funds and most activity on these contracts.

"Although, this lawsuit would have hit any logging company hard, the fact that it happened to be two local logging companies, also created a hard blow for the local economy because these are not only major employers in this County, they are also major contributors to the local economy," Kerby said.

He explained how this move by the Lands Council and Wild West Institute also struck an additional blow to the Moyie Mill, which recently had to shut down another shift and is struggling to survive right now.

"So this adds an additional hardship for our community because it affects a large number our workers and our economy," Kerby said. "This several million board feet is very much needed to help sustain that part of the County's economy as well."

Historically, this began about nine to 10 years ago when the US Forest Service started its forest health activity on a couple of different regions of federally owned land near Brush Lake.

"The US Forest Service worked with the community and all interested parties in its attempts to design these projects, which they did a multiple of times after public comment was heard," Boundary County Commissioner Dan Dinning explained. "During a resolution phone call between the Forest Service, Lands Council, Wild West Institute and myself, I asked if either of these entities had visited these project sites. Although they were invited to participate, neither chose too, which to me showed that their intent was not a matter of what is beneficial to this community or the forest, rather, it is simply to prevent any type of beneficial forest management."

Dinning added that the Gonzaga Law Clinic is providing some legal assistance to the Lands Council in this case because the environmental group does not have the resources to fight the federal government.

"It's a shame that groups who have no interest in our community, believe that they know what's best for our community," Dinning said. Boundary County, the City of Bonners Ferry and the City of Moyie Springs jointly intervened in this action on behalf of the logging companies.

"As part of our intervening as a city, we had to show the court how the city would be harmed and has an interest in this," Kerby explained. "So we showed the court all the revenue the citizens of Bonners Ferry lost, when the Bonners Ferry mill closed down. It appears to us that this lawsuit has no merit, so we decided to step up and support the US Forest Service in this action, and joined with the US Dept. of Agriculture in fighting for this sale to move forward."

Kerby explained how because this is a federal court case, the judge had to be knowledgeable about the timetable the two companies have for various projects as agreed on in their contracts.

He added that it is unclear at this time whether or not Regehr and Everhart will be penalized in the event they do not meet their deadlines due to this lawsuit.

"It would unconscionable to penalize them for something that is beyond their control," Kerby said. "I believe there are also some issues surrounding the value of some of the timber, meaning that, some of it may be at a point where you either get it out, or lose its economic value. It's all mixed and in order for this effort to be successful, it needs to move forward as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there are certain aspects of these projects that can only be done when the ground is frozen and has a snow pack due to the environmental concerns of preventing the making roads and creating sediment problems."

Due to the sensitive nature of this situation, Regehr and Everhart chose not to discuss this issue at this time.