The Obama administration is tossing out a Bush administration plan governing logging across 2.6 million acres in Oregon, saying it was not legally sustainable or supported by science. The Western Oregon Plan Revision was adopted in the waning days of the Bush administration, and stemmed from lawsuits filed by the timber industry. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar repeatedly cited influence on the plan by Bush’s now-disgraced deputy Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald, according to the AP story by Jeff Barnard. Did this story break late? Neither the AP version nor the Oregonian’s story has comment from the timber industry, which was a big supporter of the plan.
Update 10:53 a.m.: Kim Murphy of the LA Times has timber comment.
Update 11:57 a.m.: Whoops. Mattew Preusch, author of the Oregonian piece, points out that that story we picked up from the Oregonian’s home page earlier today was an early version. The more-complete story is here.
