A fight to change the management plan for the Shawnee National Forest is far from over, though local environmental groups won a historical victory in federal court, environmentalists say.

Now environmental groups, as well as U.S. Forest Service officials, say they will solicit public input and campaign for citizens’ awareness of Forest Service policy.

The U.S. Forest Service management plan for Shawnee was overturned by a federal judge Saturday, and the service was ordered to create a more ecologically friendly plan and to refrain from commercial logging in the forest for two to three years.

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This is the first forest plan in history to be overturned in federal court a milestone Ed Cook, a local Sierra Club member, said is a major victory for environmentalists everywhere.

This is major, especially when talking about how the ruling will help protect the (tree) habitats of migrant songbirds, Cook said. We’re not done by a long shot, though.

Cook said the court’s ruling will buy local environmentalists time to inform the public of logging and the effects it has on forest habitats.

Environmentalists everywhere have been vindicated, Cook said. This decision gives us breathing room. It also tells the Forest Service that they have to seriously look at their actions.

Cook said by informing the public that the management plan is being rewritten, concerned citizens will be able to call the service with their suggestions on logging policy and other Service activities.

He said environmentalists will also work to inform the public about the effects of ecological restoration logging, a type of tree cutting which has not been outlawed.

Becky Banker, spokeswoman for the Service, said ecological restoration logging involves logging trees which are not native to the forest, such as some species of pine, to open the land for native species, such as certain types of oak, to grow.

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Cook said some environmentalists are against this method as well, because some songbirds have adapted to and use the pines for their habitats.

Banker said the service also will work to inform and solicit opinion from the public.

As far as the level of cooperation, we consider all public comment, Banker said. When we do the new forest plan, we will certainly solicit comment from all of the public.

Banker said the service will send out letters to the public and work through news media to encourage input for the new plan.

Jan Wilder-Thomas, of the Shawnee Defense Fund, said she is working on a 30-second public service announcement to submit to television stations to increase public awareness of logging in the Shawnee.

Wilder-Thomas, who was arrested while protesting a Shawnee commercial logging project last fall, said the public service announcement is a film of tree cutting in Cripps Bend, near Pomona.

Wilder-Thomas said she also plans to send a video of the announcement to Congress and hopes to travel to Washington, D.C. in mid-March to lobby for tree planting and soil-erosion control.

The pressure is taken off, because the judge’s decision bought us some time, Wilder-Thomas said. But the victory is bittersweet. We shut them (the Service) down, but places like Cripps Bend are already lost.

When a new forest management plan is drafted, citizens and environmentalists will be able to review the plan and offer further input, Banker said.

The plan can also be appealed through the Forest Service and federal court, but Cook and Wilder-Thomas said they don’t think an appeal will be necessary.

A federal judge had enough savvy to see what was going on and shut them down, Wilder-Thomas said. It think it has been made very clear to the Forest Service that things need to change for the better.