GRANTS PASS — The timber industry and environmental groups find themselves in the strange position of agreeing that the Bush administration failed to follow the Endangered Species Act when it developed a plan to boost logging on federal lands in Western Oregon.

The American Forest Resource Council is afraid that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s failure to go through formal consultation with federal scientists over the potential harm to northern spotted owls and salmon will “derail” the Western Oregon Plan Revision, said Tom Partin, president of the timber industry group.

The industry group filed a recent motion asking the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to uphold a 2003 agreement with the Bush administration that calls for increasing logging on 2.6 million acres of BLM lands in Western Oregon.

Deadline for the plan is Dec. 31, just weeks before the Bush administration leaves office.

The motion argues that failing to do the formal consultation will ultimately lead to a court ruling blocking the plan, making it unlikely for BLM to meet the deadline for completion set in the 2003 agreement.

“We think there are going to be efforts (by conservation groups) to derail it,” Partin said. “We want to make sure we are operating in a positive manner so they don’t get derailed. It might look like we are working in a way to show it isn’t going to get implemented, but that certainly isn’t our bottom line.”

Kristen Boyles, an attorney for the conservation public interest law firm Earthjustice, said the cases cited in the timber industry motion are the same cases conservation groups would be citing to make the same argument.

“I think it’s an indication that Whopper is flawed — legally and scientifically — when groups as usually opposed as the environmental community and the timber industry are asking for the same thing,” she said, using the nickname giving to the Western Oregon Plan Revision.

The Endangered Species Act requires that federal projects like timber sales be formally reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries Service for whether they will harm threatened and endangered species.

Conservation groups have long argued that logging levels are so high that they will jeopardize the survival of salmon and spotted owls. With the Whopper still awaiting a final record of decision, they have yet to file a lawsuit.

BLM spokesman Michael Campbell said they would have no formal response to the timber industry motion, because they feel they are on firm legal ground with their decision to hold off formal consultations until specific timber sales hit the ground.

Meanwhile, BLM changed its mind on fast-tracking the final decision on Whopper.

Faced with a lawsuit from conservation groups, the agency has decided to allow the public 30 days to comment. That will push it very close to the Dec. 31 deadline for a final decision. Boyles said it would be fine if the bureau left the decision to the incoming Obama administration.

Campbell said the agency is confident it can meet the deadline.