Conservation Organizations Hail Ruling That Halts Old-Growth Forest Logging at the Blue and Gold Timber Sale in the Oregon Coast Range

Eugene, OR — Late yesterday, the US District Court ruled the Blue and Gold timber sale project on Bureau of Land Management (BLM)-administered land west of Yoncalla, Oregon, violated a suite of bedrock environmental laws and halted any further logging. Conservation organizations have vociferously opposed the 3,200-acre logging proposal, which contains many old-growth forest units, for more than six years.

“Concerned community members worked tirelessly to document in detail the old-growth present in these forests and, in doing so, saved this unique area from the chopping block,” said Nick Cady, Legal Director at Cascadia Wildlands. “The Court’s recognition of their contributions and condemnation of the BLM’s dismissal of these efforts is an enormous relief and is also a reminder of the critically important role the public plays in the oversight of these outstanding public forestlands.”

On Tuesday, plaintiffs Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild and Umpqua Watersheds filed for a temporary restraining order after volunteers discovered illegal old-growth logging in the timber sale area, something the BLM said would not happen, both in its planning documents and in court. However, yesterday’s ruling — a decision on the entirety of the lawsuit originally filed in September 2024 — superseded the request for a restraining order. The court determined that the agency violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act by failing to comply with its own requirement to retain old-growth trees, defined as at least 40” in diameter and more than 175 years old. 

“Wild, ancient forests, like those targeted for logging in the Blue and Gold project, are exactly the type of places our public land agencies should be protecting to provide clean drinking water, refuges for imperiled wildlife, and natural fire resilience,” said John Persell, Senior Staff Attorney for Oregon Wild. “Instead of managing for these values for the whole public, the BLM and the Trump administration are trying to exploit these precious and rare forests for maximum, short-term benefits of just a few logging corporations.” 

The Court also ruled the agency failed to take a “hard look” at forest conditions in the contested area, including old-growth forests that dominate many of the proposed logging units, a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. Due to the significance of the timber sale project and its impacts on old-growth forests and endangered species, including the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet, the Court ruled that the BLM should have prepared an in-depth Environmental Impact Statement to more fully analyze the timber sale project’s impacts on the environment.

“It was the hard work of community members who care deeply about these forests that brought to light the agency’s shortcomings in approving this ill-conceived, unlawful project. As the Court found, if the agency wants to log our public forests, it has an obligation to show how it is going to protect the oldest trees, the ones that the community had spent years visiting and documenting, and the Court correctly halted BLM’s effort to sidestep that obligation,” said Meriel Darzen, Senior Staff Attorney at Crag Law Center. 

Central to the claims in the case were declarations by former federal biologists stating that the agency intentionally misrepresented the age of the forests in planning documents to facilitate the illegal logging of this unique block of old-growth. Additionally, field visits and documentation efforts by members and staff of plaintiff organizations and records obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests confirmed that far older forest dominated substantial portions of the project area than what BLM disclosed.

“These remaining parcels of old-growth forests in the Coast Range are critical for the habitat values they provide, the clean water they filter, and the carbon they store to help mitigate climate change,” said Janice Reid, Conservation Chair of Umpqua Watersheds. “Unfortunately, the Bureau of Land Management has shirked its legal duties to protect the old-growth, so this Court decision is very welcomed.”

While Blue and Gold is just one of many mature and old-growth timber sale projects currently proposed by the BLM, the Trump administration is working to revise the agency’s 2016 Resource Management Plans that govern the management of 2.5-million forested acres in western Oregon. The agency aims to quadruple the cut with the revision and make logging the sole focus of these lands over other values, such as recreation, habitat, carbon storage, and clean water. The proposal to ramp up logging levels across the western Oregon BLM estate is expected this summer and is being watched closely by conservation interests.

The organizations have been represented by attorneys from Crag Law Center, Cascadia Wildlands, and Oregon Wild in this case.

####

* Photos for press use. Find high-resolution photos of the illegal logging and the threatened forests in the Blue and Gold timber sale here. Photo credits: David Herasimtschuk and Cascadia Wildlands.