EMBATTLED FIRM ALLOWED TO LOG : REDWOOD TIMBER MUST BE DEAD OR DYING.

Byline: Associated Press

A logging company challenged by environmentalists won the right Wednesday to clear dead and dying timber from a grove of northwestern California redwoods.

After two days of hearings, U.S. District Judge Louis C. Bechtle said the Environmental Protection Information Center failed to prove the plan would jeopardize the marbled murrelet, an endangered bird that lives in old-growth forests.

Bechtle denied the group's request for a temporary restraining order against Pacific Lumber Co.

Pacific Lumber plans to remove only fallen trees from virgin groves in California's Headwaters Forest, where logging has never occurred, and cut down dead or dying trees from previously logged areas.

EPIC lawyer Thomas N. Lippe argued that the techniques used to remove downed trees can damage healthy trees up to 1,000 years old, causing them to die and disrupt the murrelet's habitat.

Pacific Lumber attorney Alson R. Kemp argued the plaintiffs did not demonstrate that modifying the bird's habitat would necessarily harm the species.

Kemp also told the judge the company would contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before chopping down any dead standing trees in areas where the endangered birds live.

EPIC requested the hearing on Sept. 13, three days before Pacific Lumber planned to begin logging in small sections of the 207,000 acres of forest it owns in the region.

The Clinton administration also intervened before the deadline, and after two weeks of negotiations announced Saturday that an agreement had been reached to acquire portions of the forest from Pacific Lumber.

Under the tentative agreement, which must be approved by Washington state and Sacramento, state and federal authorities will jointly contribute $380 million in cash and assets to create a new 7,500-acre Headwaters Preserve.