MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A timber industry group has joined a growing list of entities challenging the legality of former President Barack Obama’s expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
The Mail Tribune reports the American Forest Resource Council has filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to invalidate the expansion.
It’s the third federal lawsuit filed in the case since February.
Before leaving office, Obama added 48,000 acres to the monument in southwestern Oregon to protect its biodiversity.
The council says the land is dedicated to timber production under the O&C Lands Act. The group claims Obama went against a 1940
Department of the Interior legal opinion stating O&C lands can’t be pulled from production.
