GRANTS PASS - The U.S. Forest Service went overboard when it suspended mushroom picking, the cutting of Christmas trees and other activities to comply with a court order declaring it had to give the public a greater say in forest management decisions, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Clarifying an earlier ruling, U.S. District Judge James K. Singleton Jr., wrote that the Forest Service needs to take public comments and consider appeals on major projects, such as timber sales and new off-highway vehicle trails - not on minor things like permits for hunting guides, or gathering mushrooms.

“This is the second time in a row the judge agreed with us and rejected the Forest Service's utterly ridiculous interpretation of his order,” said Jim Bensman of Heartwood, a Midwest forest protection group that was a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging Bush administration changes to forest management rules.

“I think this is pretty solid proof that the Forest Service was playing games with thousands of people's livelihoods to try to get a political advantage.”

The Forest Service had suspended nearly 1,500 activities nationwide, including cutting an 80-foot spruce in New Mexico to serve as the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree, the transfer of an operating permit for a ski area outside Los Angeles, and permits to pick mushrooms on national forests in Oregon, arguing that they were all affected by Singleton's July 2 ruling for the Eastern District of California.

Environmental groups accused the Bush administration and the Forest Service of intentionally trying to create a train wreck to build support for legislation to further limit public participation in logging on national forests.

The ruling stemmed from a 2003 lawsuit by Heartwood and other environmental groups challenging the harvest of burned trees on the Sequoia National Forest in California, which had been approved under what is called a categorical exclusion, which does not allow for public comment or appeals. The case was aimed at striking down rules adopted by the Bush administration in 2003, Bensman said.

The judge wrote that when he suspended the 2003 regulations, he intended for the Forest Service to go back to regulations in effect before they were changed. Under those rules, activities subject to public comment and appeal included timber sales, prescribed burning, off-highway vehicle trails, creating wildlife openings greater than five acres, oil and gas exploration, and digging trenches to look for minerals.

The judge denied the Forest Service request to lift his order pending appeal, saying the Forest Service had not shown it was likely to win an appeal, and the irreparable harm it tried to show would likely go away now that his order was made more clear.

Forest Service spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevich said the agency would comply with the judge's clarification order, but had not yet conferred with U.S. Justice Department attorneys on just what that would mean.

Matt Kenna, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center in Durango, Colo., who represented environmentalists in the case, said he was still afraid that timber supporters would try to push a legislative rider through Congress to repeal the Appeals Reform Act, the basis for the ruling.

“This certainly shows the Forest Service was acting totally inappropriately and had no legal basis for what they were doing,” Kenna said. “I hope Congress realizes the Forest Service has been dishonest all along.”

Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group, maintained that environmentalists had intended to shut down minor forest activities, but backed off when confronted with public outrage.

“Our laws and regulations are not set up to pick and choose,” West said. “It should be across the board, not just those deemed politically correct by a special interest.”

The Forest Service had suspended 115 permits for guided hunting, fishing, river trips and horseback rides, 14 projects on ski areas, 98 permits for public utilities and communications sites, and National Guard training on the Hoosier National Forest in Indiana. They also suspended thinning and burning to reduce wildfire danger on 20,000 acres, and 169 projects involving trail and campground maintenance.