A federal judge ruled on Feb. 19 that a Pennsylvania family running a maple syrup business cannot stop most of their trees from being cut down to make way for a shale gas pipeline, but he stopped short of charging them with contempt of court.

Judge Malachy Mannion of the U.S. District Court in Scranton said his previous order allowing the tree cutting could not be challenged in court. But he said lawyers for the company building the Constitution Pipeline failed to prove the five defendants who own the property were guilty of obstructing the tree cutting.

"But I'm going to direct that U.S. Marshals are empowered to arrest or detain anyone who obstructs the felling of trees," he said. "Then they will be brought before me for a contempt hearing."

Monty Morgan, a former Ohio state trooper who is regional security director for Constitution Pipeline Co., was unable to identify any of the defendants as those who have blocked workers from cutting the maples this month.

The $875 million Constitution Pipeline, due to be operational this autumn, would run 124 miles from Montrose, Pa., to Albany, N. Y., bringing gas from fracking wells to the New York and New England markets. The 120-foot wide pipeline's right-of-way would force the felling of up to 200 maples, or about 80% of the family's sugaring trees.

Michael Archie, a spokesman for Williams Cos. Inc., which along with Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE: COG) and several other partners will own the pipeline, said tree cutting could start as soon as the coming week.

"I think this is the most realistic outcome we could have expected," said Megan Holleran, spokeswoman for North Harford Maple, a family-run syrup business in New Milford, Pa.. "We never intended to disobey the judge's order."

She said peaceful protests would continue and became emotional about the impending loss of the maple trees. But she said family members will stay outside an exclusion zone set by the judge, and would not encourage others to stop the cutting.

Her mother, Catherine Holleran, is one of the defendants. Three others - Michael W. Zeffer, Maryann Zeffer and Patricia Glover - are aunts or uncles. Dustin Webster, the fifth defendant, is a cousin. The family has owned the land since moving from Long Island in the early 1950s.

The company and the family have made no agreement regarding compensation for the land, which was transferred by an eminent domain court order declaring that the pipeline is in the public interest.