For Immediate Release ö Wednesday, June 20, 2001

BC Supreme Court grants temporary injunction to halt logging to save Spotted Owls

Vancouver, BC - Justice Anderson of the Supreme Court of British Columbia granted WCWC an injunction to halt Cattermole Timber from logging a cut block in Siwash Creek in the Chilliwack Forest District where a female Spotted Owl is known to reside.

The injunction, which expires at 4 PM on Monday, June 25, will temporarily protect the habitat in order to give WCWC lawyers from the Sierra Legal Defense Fund the opportunity to argue the case in court.

Beginning at 10 am next Monday, WCWC will be back in court asking that the injunction be extended until the court has time at a later date to weigh the full merits of the case.

In order to get the injunction, WCWC had to agree to an undertaking that it (WCWC) would be liable for damages to Cattermole Timber, the company holding the cutting permit. If WCWC's application for a judicial review of the District Forest Manager's decision to grant the cutting permit in the critical Spotted Owl habitat ultimately fails, it could cost the society thousands of dollars.

It also came out in court that Cattermole is anxious to drop the timber in the cut block under dispute and yard it out in order to meet an export permit deadline of July 31, 2001.

The Attorney General's lawyers, representing the Chilliwack District Forest Manager did not take a position one way or another on whether or not the court should grant the temporary injunction.

"We have been warned that our injunction could cost us a lot of money. But someone has to stand up to defend the owls and the threatened ecosystem they inhabit. That's our job," stated Western Canada Wilderness Committee Director Joe Foy.

The Wilderness Committee has had a long history of defending the owls including taking the province's Chief Forester to court in 1995 in a failed attempt to get the allowable annual timber cut lowered in order to save enough Spotted Owl Habitat for this species to survive.

Neither Canada nor BC have a law to protect endangered species and species at risk. The Spotted Owls have been in rapid decline in BC with only 22 pairs of these beautiful birds now remaining in Canada.

For more information contact:
Joe Foy at 604-683-8220 or by Cell 880-2580