EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY News Bulletin October 1999 What's Deep Ecology? Here's a new angle. The law suit got filed Sept. 30, according to Ray Fenner (fenner@PioneerPlanet.infi.net). The loggers are serving the Forest Service with the complaint that environmental groups and the Forest Service are using religion to oppose logging. The defendents are listed as: United States Forest Service, Superior Wilderness Action Network, and Forest Guardians. The plaintiffs are Associated Contract Loggers, Inc. and Olson Logging, Inc. "Plaintiffs seek to prevent the establishment of religion by Defendant USFS, or, at minimum, neutrality by Defendent USFS in matters of religious faith. The purpose of this action is to obtain declaratory and injunctive relief regarding the procedures to be used by Defendant USFS in managing forest lands owned by the United States of America in Minnesota and damages for failure to provide Plaintiffs, first, with adequate amounts of timber to log under established Available Sale Quantities ("ASQ") limitations, and second, reasonable winter access to timber on lands not owned by the United States of America. Defendants SWAN and Forest Guardians have constrained Defendant USFS to follow certain religious beliefs on the sacredness of trees and other natural flora and fauna such that Defendent USFS is complicit in the establishment of religion contrary to the provisions of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States." [There is a section later in this complaint that expounds on the fact that the national forests in MN have been below ASQ levels and the plaintiffs have suffered financially.] "Defendant SWAN has brought judicial action against Defendant USFS to stop, delay, hinder, postpone or otherwise impede sales of timber and the construction of temporary winter roads. "Defendant Forest Guardians has intervened in proposed sales of timber put out for bid by Defendant USFS to prevent such sales. Defendant Forest Guardians makes a constant effort to end commercial logging on public lands and stop aspen clear-cutting by the USFS. "Defendant USFS has no duty to turn national forest land under its management into wilderness habitat burdened with severe restrictions on human use and enjoyment, by among other things, placing such land in Research Natural Areas or Special Management Complexes. Land owned by the United States of America can only be converted to wilderness with limitations on human use and enjoyment through compliance with 16 U.S.C. Sec. 1131 et seq. Non-wilderness lands managed by Defendant USFS are open to all purposes set forth in 16 U.S.C. Secs. 475, 528 and 529. "Nationally, the amount of wood fiber harvested from national forests under management by Defendent USFS fell from 12 billion board feet in 1989 to only 3.3 billion board feet in 1998. "Where it once took only 6 months for Defendant USFS to give a special use permit for temporary access to logging sites, it will now take 2 to 3 years of study and dispute, all caused by interventions and pressure brought about by Defendants SWAN and Forest Guardians. "Defendant USFS has failed in its duty, first, to provide Plaintiffs with sustained yields of timber for public sale and, second, to provide timely access to non-federal owned land through special use permits. "Third, Defendant USFS threatens to allow any challenge to a timber sale, even challenges masking suspect religious motivations, to stop the sale of timber. "Defendant USFS has been derelict in its duties under 16 U.S.C. Secs 475, 528, and 529 because it has, at a minimum, shown favoritism to the religion of Deep Ecology as manifested in the actions and demands of Defendants SWAN and Forest Guardians, and at a maximum, cooperated with such Defendants in establishing the premises of Deep Ecology as part of government management of national forests in Minnesota. Defendant USFS has allowed itself to be used as a tool, agent, or instrument of Defendants SWAN and Forest Guardians for religious purposes. "The purpose of Defendant SWAN is to stop logging in Minnesota. SWAN believes in the creation of natural reserves within which limited or no human access or interferance with natural forces is permitted. Since its formation SWAN has advocated no commercial logging in national forests. SWAN seeks to replace longstanding uses of national forests and other lands with a biodiversity reserve system based on the core-buffer-corridor model. "SWAN is guided by the premises and beliefs of Deep Ecology. "Deep Ecology is a rival to such religious texts as Genesis from the Old Testament of Judeo-Christian tradition. It is a religion similar in many beliefs to the neo-pagan religions of Druid practices, Wicca and Gaia worship. Deep Ecology has appropriated religious practices of Native Americans. "The beliefs of Deep Ecology are also reflected in the Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation, an interfaith forest ethic to articulate a right relationship to forests and wild areas from a religious perspective. The Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota Environmental Stewardship Commission considers the Boundary Waaters Canoe Area wilderness part of the Chippewa National Forest to be "sacred ground". The Christian Environmental Council seeks the end of all commercial logging on US National forests because, it believes, Christian Scriptures clearly teach that forests are a place where God is present and cares and provides for his creatures who inhabit them. The Leadership of National Religious Partnership for the Environment believes that "environmentalism started with Genesis, not Earth Day. "SWAN's Executive Director, Ray Fenner, points out the religious aspects of saving forests from logging in everything he does. "The tactics used by Defendants SWAN and Forest Guardians have placed great administrative burdens on Defendant USFS in Minnesota so that sales of timber are postponed, delayed or abandoned. "Such postponement, delay and abandonment have caused Defendant USFS to breach its duty to provide Plaintiffs with timber and temporary access roads in a timely manner. "Tactics used by Defendants SWAN and Forest Guardians to interfere with the decision-making process of Defendant USFS constitute devices to deceive in the nature of smokescreens and subterfuges about the religious purposes advanced by such Defendants contrary to Federal Constitutional gaarantees that federal power will not be used to favor or establish any religion or religious beliefs. "Such postponement, delay and abandonment have further caused Defendant USFS to impose upon Plaintiffs and other persons the consequences of a belief in Deep Ecology, thereby favoring one religion over another and thereby promoting the establishment of a religion contrary to the Constitution of the United States. "Contrary to the express provisions of 16 U.S.C. Secs 475, 528 and 529, Defendant USFS recognizes that promotion of spirituality is one of its goals in management of lands owned by the United States. "Mike Dombeck, Chief of Defendant USFS in February 1999, stated that "spiritual values" have become more and more important as national goals for management of national forests by Defendant USFS. On March 28, 1999, the same Mike Dombeck announced that conservation biology would be the first priority of Defendant USFS in the future. On June 12, 1999 Defendant USFS issued the first draft of planning regulations making conservation biology and ecological sustainability the first priority on national forests. The draft stated that "the fundamental goal of the National Forest System is to maintain and restore ecological sustainability, the long-term maintenance of the diversity of native plant and animal communities, and the productive capacity of ecological systems." This plan shifts Defendant USFS away from multiple-use of national forests in line with the theological dictates of Deep Ecology on the sanctity of non-human nature. "Plaintiff ACL and its members has been damaged by lost income from reduced harvesting of timber on lands managed by Defendant USFS. Plaintiff ACL and its members were denied timber in the amount of 124.2 million board feet for a net loss of $550,000. "If Defendents SWAN and Forest Guardians are successful in their imposition of Deep Ecology on Defendant USFS, the business of Plaintiff Olson may be forced to close and the businesses of Plaintiff ACL members will be permanently harmed as all timber from lands owned by the United States in Minnesota is placed off limits to logging and no temporary access is permitted to assist loggers gain access to land where they hold contracts for harvesting timber. "Declaratory relief that no action taken by Defendants SWAN or Forest Guardians be acknowledged by any federal or state Court in Minnesota, or affecting Minnesota lands, or by Defendant USFS unless and until there has been an affirmative showing acceptable to the Courts of the United States that such action by Defendants SWAN and Forest Guardians will not advance, favor or establish any religious belief or tenant, or that such action serves a compelling interest of the United States of America and measures taken to implement such action are narrowly drawn to serve such compelling interest only. "Injunctive relief that Defendant USFS cease and desist in establishing, promoting, or favoring Deep ecology or any similar religion. "Monetary damages of $550,000 for members of Plaintiff ACL and of $43,100 for Plaintiff Olson to be born by all Defendant jointly and severally." Home     Table of Contents