GRANTS PASS (AP) - A federal judge has dismissed a legal challenge to logging trees in roadless areas killed by the 2002 Biscuit fire, but it remains questionable whether timber companies will want to buy burned trees rotting on the stump for nearly four years.

Following the recommendations of a magistrate, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene on Tuesday dismissed consolidated lawsuits that challenged logging in old growth forest reserves and roadless areas on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

U.S. Magistrate John Cooney in Medford had recommended dismissal last July after rejecting all the claims of environmental groups that the Forest Service had failed to adequately protect old growth forest reserves, roadless areas and fish habitat from the harm caused by intensive logging.

Sparked by lightning, the Biscuit fire burned 500,000 acres in the summer of 2002, making it the largest fire in the country that year.

It has since become a legal and political battleground - with the Bush administration and the timber industry on one side, and environmental groups on the other - over how best to restore the forest and habitat critical to the northern spotted owl and salmon.

“This ruling and the previous two court rulings had indicated the Forest Service clearly followed the law as it was proceeding with its ongoing Biscuit salvage sales,” said Rogue River-Siskiyou spokeswoman Patty Burel.

Roadless areas are parts of national forests too remote and too rugged to be economical for logging in the past. The Bush administration last year opened them to logging under certain conditions after they had been put off-limits by the Clinton administration. Four western states and several environmental groups are challenging the new roadless policy in federal court.

Environmentalists and many scientists argue that roadless areas offer a prime source of clean water and the best habitat for fish and wildlife. After a wildfire, they say, big dead trees offer valuable habitat and a legacy for new forests.

The Forest Service will take the next few weeks to decide whether there is enough timber remaining after four years of rot to justify logging, and whether timber companies would still be interested, Burel said.

Though a decision has not been made, the environmental groups were likely to appeal, said Kristin Boyles, attorney for Earthjustice.

“Those are very important areas,” she said. “I don't think people have given up on those sales.”

Timber in roadless areas accounted for more than half the timber target of 370 million board feet on Biscuit. But though there was no injunction expressly forbidding it, the Rogue River-Siskiyou had held off selling any of it. Companies were offered sales in old growth reserves, designated primarily for fish and wildlife habitat, and matrix areas, designated for timber harvest. At last estimate, the Forest Service figured some 67 million board feet of roadless timber remained sound enough for sale.