ŒŒWe have the right to
petition the judge, and we will,'' said
Jeremy Nichols, of Biodiversity Conservation
Alliance in Laramie, Wyo.
Nichols said if the U.S.
Forest Service doesn't stop the work it
started in Beaver Park, Biodiversity would
file a petition in federal court to stop it.
Beaver Park, five miles
south of Sturgis, is infested with pine
beetles that have killed trees. Officials
are worried that without timber thinning,
the area is ripe for a catastrophic fire,
something that Biodiversity and other
environmental groups dispute.
A lawsuit settlement with
environmental groups had prevented timber
thinning in Beaver Park. The Sierra Club and
the Wilderness Society agreed to renegotiate
the lawsuit settlement to allow emergency
thinning of dead and dying trees, but
Biodiversity rejected the new deal.
President Bush signed the
deal into law on Aug. 2. Less than a week
later, Nichols wrote to Forest Supervisor
John Twiss saying the Forest Service was
obligated to honor the earlier lawsuit
settlement.
The Forest Service has begun
improving roads outside Beaver Park in
preparation for thinning.