Bureau of Land Management forest land in Southern Oregon. A federal judge has refused to halt logging on roughly 2,000 acres in Southern Oregon. (Bureau of Land Management/Contributed)Environmental groups sued to block loggingA federal judge has refused to halt logging on roughly 2,000 acres in Southern Oregon, as sought by environmental advocates who claimed hardwood trees were being unlawfully removed. The project was not focused on removing hardwood trees, such as black oaks and pacific madrones, but allowed them to be cut down for safety and operational reasons. Even if the environmental plaintiffs had raised “serious questions” about the adequacyof the NEPA review, it still wouldn’t be appropriate to block logging in this case, the judge said.