Judge halts commercial timber harvest in Central Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has stopped a commercial timber harvest in central Oregon near Walton Lake in Oregon’s Ochoco National Forest at the request of an environmental group. The Capital Press reports U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman has granted a preliminary injunction requested by the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project against logging in the recreational area that was to start in October. Mosman said at the end of oral arguments in Portland Wednesday that the nonprofit group was likely to prevail on the on the merits of its claim that the project violated the National Environmental Policy Act.