FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 17, 2025 

PORTLAND, Ore.— Conservation groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for denying protections to the imperiled North Oregon Coast population of red tree voles. The voles spend most of their lives in the upper branches of the Oregon Coast’s mature and old-growth forests.

The Service’s 2024 decision to deny life-saving Endangered Species Act protections to the North Oregon Coast population echoes a similar 2019 Trump administration denial, which also sparked a lawsuit. Those decisions were made despite studies showing that these red tree voles are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, largely due to logging and climate change-fueled wildfires.

“Red tree voles have graced Oregon’s coastal old-growth forests for thousands of years, but we could lose them forever if they don’t get Endangered Species Act protections soon,” said Ryan Shannon, a senior attorney in the Center for Biological Diversity’s endangered species program. “It’s time for the Fish and Wildlife Service to follow the science and do the right thing by stepping up for red tree voles.”

Red tree voles build their nests on complex branch and bole structures found in mature and old-growth forests. The North Coast is dominated by a combination of private industrial timberlands and the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests. Decades of rapacious clearcut logging, as well as a series of historic fires known as the Tillamook Burn, have eliminated most of the area’s old forests along with the red tree voles that once called them home. Red tree voles are an essential species in the last remaining old-growth and mature coastal forests in Oregon and protecting them is necessary for ecosystem recovery.

“Red tree voles are a key prey of the threatened northern spotted owl whose population is plummeting,” says Joe Liebezeit, statewide conservation director for Bird Alliance of Oregon. “We need to step up protection of voles to ensure the integrity of forest ecosystem as a whole — including the food web which so much wildlife depends on.”

Remaining North Coast voles are concentrated on federal public lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Although the Northwest Forest Plan helps protect these remaining small and isolated populations, the long-term survival of the voles depends on improving state and private land forest management and connecting fragmented and isolated red tree vole populations.

Oregon is in the process of adopting a state forest habitat conservation plan that will provide some protection to the vole, but the plan will also allow for continued logging of thousands of acres of potential vole habitat without any surveys to determine if voles are present. There are currently no meaningful protections in private forests.

“The red tree vole is a unique species with adaptations that allow them to live almost their entire lives high in the canopy of mature and old-growth forests,” said Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild. “Its range and habitat are already limited, and without protection for the North Coast population, we could lose red tree voles to irresponsible logging.”

In response to a 2007 Center for Biological Diversity petition, the Service determined in 2011 that protection of the North Oregon Coast population of red tree voles was “warranted but precluded” by other listing priorities. It then moved the voles to a list of candidate species for a decade, repeating its determination that the North Oregon Coast population warranted protection several times before reversing course and denying protections in 2019. A Center lawsuit over the denial resulted in a 2022 settlement directing the Service to reconsider the decision.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service is yet again shirking its duty to this and future generations to prevent the extinction of our most imperiled wildlife species including the red tree vole,” said Bethany Cotton, conservation director for Cascadia Wildlands. “Red tree voles are an important indicator species of forest health; their decline should be a wake-up call to us all to better care for our remaining mature and old-growth forests.”

Bird Alliance of Oregon, Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild are represented by the Center for Biological Diversity in today’s suit.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Bird Alliance of Oregon was founded in 1902 and works statewide to advocate for Oregon’s wildlife and wild places, and to inspire all people to love and protect birds, wildlife, and the natural environment upon which life depends.

Cascadia Wildlands defends and restores Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets.

Oregon Wild works to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and waters as an enduring legacy for future generations.

The post Lawsuit Aims to Protect Oregon Coast Red Tree Voles first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which governs the environmental review process for public land management decisions and mandates public input in the review process, has been a repeat target for the administration. On June 30th, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released an interim final rule changing NEPA implementation procedures for all of its agencies, including the Forest Service. These regulations come in response to the administration’s rescission of the Council of Environmental Quality’s NEPA regulations earlier this year (spurred by EO 14154, Unleashing American Energy) which prompted each agency to craft its own NEPA regulations without meaningful public or Tribal input during the development of the rule. 

Sign our petition below to tell the US Department of Agriculture — Don’t Shut the Public Out of Public Lands.

The USDA NEPA implementation regulations strip away mechanisms for public input. The implementation regulations no longer require scoping, an early and essential process where an agency provides the public with notice of a potential project and identifies the potential environmental impacts. The regulations also no longer require public comment periods during the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) stages. The agency will no longer be required to provide a Schedule of Proposed Actions to the public. These changes, which took effect July 3rd, 2025 with the interim final rule’s publication in the Federal Register, impact all 193 million acres of land that the Forest Service manages, including Mt. Hood, Willamette, Umpqua, Siuslaw, and Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forests.

SIGN THE PETITION BELOW TO TELL TRUMP — PUBLIC INPUT FOR PUBLIC LANDS!

The post Forests Over Fascists—Don’t Shut the Public Out of Public Lands. first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 8, 2025 

Eugene, Ore. — The Trump administration is dismantling the public’s ability to engage with federal land management decisions  — an alarming shift with especially dire consequences for Pacific Northwest  forests. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which governs the environmental review process for public land management decisions and mandates public input in the review process, has been a repeat target for the administration. 

On June 30th, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released an interim final rule changing NEPA implementation procedures for all of its agencies, including the Forest Service. These regulations come in response to the administration’s rescission of the Council of Environmental Quality’s NEPA regulations earlier this year (spurred by EO 14154, Unleashing American Energy) which prompted each agency to craft its own NEPA regulations  without meaningful public or Tribal input during the development of the rule.

The USDA NEPA implementation regulations strip away mechanisms for public input. The implementation regulations no longer require scoping, an early and essential process where an agency provides the public with notice of a potential project and identifies the potential environmental impacts. The regulations also no longer require public comment periods during the draft Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Statement stages. The agency will no longer be required to provide a Schedule of Proposed Actions to the public. These changes, which took effect July 3rd, 2025 with the interim final rule’s publication in the Federal Register, impact all 193 million acres of land that the Forest Service manages, including Mt. Hood, Willamette, Umpqua, Siuslaw, and Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forests. 

“Mandated periods for public comment allow everyone to weigh in on what happens on public lands, including those most impacted. Importantly, these public comments are put into the public record, which can be essential if a proposal is challenged in court,” said Grace Brahler, Wildlands Director at Cascadia Wildlands. “The Trump administration is systematically and strategically targeting the tools the public can use to fight against rampant logging in public forests.”

Importantly, these new NEPA regulations serve a strategic purpose for Trump’s agenda and come after months of setup by the administration. Just four days after its sweeping rescission of CEQ’s NEPA implementation regulations in February, the White House issued Executive Order 14225 calling for the “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production” and instructing agencies to eliminate any regulations that hinder or delay approval of logging projects. In response to instructions in the EO, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins declared a national emergency, opening up roughly 60% of all national forest lands to emergency procedures intended to fast-track logging. Rollins’ emergency declaration and subsequent memos describing it, called for the elimination of scoping, public comment, and objection periods, among other damaging practices to speed up irresponsible logging. The new NEPA implementation regulations now codify Sec. Rollins’ national emergency into regulatory language that reaches beyond the emergency declaration timeframe and expands the functional application of the order. While Sec. Rollins’ order applies to 60% of national forest lands, the USDA’s new NEPA regulations governing the Forest Service now apply to all national forest lands. The new Forest NEPA regulations are, in this way, a culmination of the agenda that the Trump administration has been laying out for months. 

“These policies represent a sharp pivot toward prioritizing timber production at the expense of environmental safeguards, public transparency, and ecologically based forest management,” said Jordan Latter, Bark’s Forest Watch Program Manager. 

For months preceding the new FS’ NEPA implementation regulations, to align with Secretary Collins’ order, Forest Service districts have implemented actions to reduce public input in a ploy to increase timber output. Internal memos obtained by Bark reveal that the Forest Service was told in April to begin relying heavily on “Categorical Exclusions” (CEs) —a legal shortcut that allows timber sales to proceed without public comment or formal objection periods and with only minimal environmental analysis. To maximize use of this loophole, the agency has adopted over 40 new CE categories from other federal agencies. The new FS NEPA regulations suggest that this expanded use of CEs has become a permanent feature of Forest Service policy.

“The Trump administration has taken strategic steps since January to push their corporate, timber-industry agenda forward by eroding mechanisms for public input,” said Madeline Cowen, Grassroots Organizer with Cascadia Wildlands. “The new Forest Service NEPA implementation regulations take away the very tools and opportunities the public has to decide what happens to their public lands.” 

Attacks on NEPA are only part of the administration’s aim. The Trump admin continues to target largely popular and impactful environmental Laws, regardless of the public support that they have. Agencies have been directed to repeal any policy not explicitly required by statute. In line with this directive, the Trump Administration recently announced that they plan to repeal the Roadless Rule, which protects 58.5 million acres from new road construction around the United States. In 2002, the Roadless Rule set the record for the most public comments submitted with 1.6 million public comments supporting its adoption. And this Spring, the administration proposed rescinding the definition of harm in the Endangered Species Act, despite the law’s broad support across political spectrums. 

“What’s happening here is a shift from a multi-use, community-informed forest management model to one that prioritizes extraction and profit,” said Jade Hagan, Bark’s Director of Community Engagement and Communications. “That shift is happening fast, and the public is being locked out of the process.” 

These policy changes eliminating formal opportunities for public comment and objection effectively force communities to resort to litigation if they want to challenge harmful projects, which is exclusionary for the public and costly for agencies and will not result in a more efficient process. Moreover, by reducing public notice and scoping requirements, the administration is making it harder for everyday people to even know what’s happening on their public lands—all while the federal government prioritizes industry profits over transparency, accountability, and environmental protection.

Despite these setbacks, Bark, Cascadia Wildlands and other watchdog organizations remain committed to defending our forests and advocating for public land management that is transparent, science-driven, and rooted in community values and environmental justice.  

The post Public Shut Out as Trump Administration Guts Bedrock Environmental Protections   first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

From June 20 to 23, Cascadia Wildlands held our biggest volunteer event of the year: the WildCAT Field Checking Basecamp. Volunteers gathered near Glide, Oregon, to help stop logging in some of the most breathtaking old-growth ecosystems in the Little River watershed.

The area lies within the traditional homelands of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. Their ancestors include Upper Umpqua, Takelma, Molalla, and Yoncalla peoples who have lived in and traveled through the South Umpqua River basin since time immemorial. We encourage support for Indigenous-led environmental justice efforts, including Cow Creek youth-led programs like Tuú Yap’a Xumá, which teaches traditional plant cultivation.

Throughout the weekend, WildCAT volunteers worked to field-check seven units in the proposed Bureau of Land Management (BLM) timber sale. Field checking is the process of documenting on-the-ground conditions of a forest to challenge or stop harmful logging projects. As we documented the threatened forests on the ground, news of even broader threats at the federal level began to surface. The Summer Solstice arrived under dark clouds that seemed to reflect our growing frustration over Trump’s plan to rescind the Roadless Rule and open millions of acres of public lands to logging. Rain fell steadily, turning at times to hail and wet snow. Still, spirits stayed high. Thanks to a well-tended fire and delicious meals made by our amazing volunteers, we stayed warm, nourished, and ready to keep going. Despite the elements, we successfully field-checked all of our targeted units.

Along the way, we trekked through dense forests, open meadows, and misty waterfalls teeming with life. We spotted mycoheterotrophs (partly or entirely non-photosynthetic plants that obtain energy and nutrients from fungi) like coralroot, gnome plant, and ghost pipe pushing up through the soil. These rare plants thrive in biodiverse ecosystems that support the complex symbiotic relationships they depend on. We admired Pacific madrones with their purple peeling bark, sprawling California black oaks, and towering old growth trees with broken tops that create prime nesting habitat for northern spotted owls.

Several trees with diameter-at-breast-height measurements over 70 inches towered above us, including ancient Douglas firs wide enough for our whole group to wrap around. Their massive trunks offered calm to each of us, while also providing critical habitat for countless other species. We found waterways that had not been marked by the Bureau of Land Management, recorded signs of wildlife ranging from bear to coyote, and watched a bright green Pacific tree frog launch itself confidently into the duff. 

On our final day, we gathered under the freshly shining sun, grateful for its warmth, and each shared a teaching we were taking from Basecamp and a gratitude for one another. I was sure the first comment would make us chuckle, something like “I learned to bring a darn good quality rain jacket!”. But instead, every single person offered something thoughtful. People spoke about their gratitude for the fire tenders and the care put into our shared meals. They reflected on joyful moments of connection with the life around us, on noticing things they hadn’t seen before, and on the kindness exchanged between all of us. What remained with us was the meaningful community we built and the vital field checking we accomplished together.

Now that the field checking is complete, Cascadia Wildlands will submit the data and detailed comments gathered by our volunteers to the Bureau of Land Management. If the agency fails to listen, we’re prepared to challenge the sale through legal action.To everyone who showed up, thank you. Your presence made this trip what it was. And for those who couldn’t join this time, we hope to see you at the next one. There are more old-growth ecosystems to stand up for, and more work ahead to care for the places we love.

The post Basecamp 2025 at Little River first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Following intense public outcry opposing efforts to sell off treasured public lands to private interests, including your messages, the Senate funding package (or “Big Beautiful Bill”) will no longer include its original provisions authorizing the sale of hundreds of millions of acres of public lands across the West (but, keep reading… they’re still trying to sell off public lands). The Senate parliamentarian called Senate Republicans’ bluff, ruling that the initial massive public land sell-off of proposal violated the Byrd rule, which prohibits public policy issues from being addressed during the budget reconciliation process. 

However, we are not out of the woods yet… 

While bill sponsors have backed off attempts to sell U.S. Forest Service managed public lands, the updated proposal still targets Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands “located within 5 miles of the border of a population center.” Key terms like “population center” have yet to be defined and provisions enabling rampant logging were maintained. BLM-managed public lands in most of the west are already a patchwork with private lands, such that selling public lands near towns could block access to some of our best and last remaining mature and old-growth forests, favorite hiking trails and foraging spots, cherished waterways, and more. Selling these lands would threaten tribal nations’ constitutional and treaty rights to access hunting and fishing grounds, as well as their cultural and ceremonial sites. And while bill sponsors continue to claim good intentions for these public land grabs like supplying affordable housing, nothing in the bill language requires the lands proposed for sale be actually used for that. Tell Congress to keep ALL public lands in public hands! 

While the threat is reduced, any public land sale sets a dangerous precedent—once we sell off public lands and pave the way for resource extraction and public exclusion, we don’t get them back. Worse yet, the bill waives public engagement in the sale process, meaning this is our last chance to weigh in.

We must stand strong and united against this ongoing threat to public lands. Make sure your federal reps know that you oppose any efforts to sell off even one acre of public land. Keep sending messages and making calls even if your electeds have voiced opposition! Tell your friends, family, and community to do the same. We’re seeing the power of public pressure in action and can’t let up now.

The post URGENT: Take Action Against this 1.2 Million Acre Public Lands Sale first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

The post Add Your Name: Petition to the Bureau of Land Management on the 42 Divide Logging project in the Coast Range first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

For immediate release: May 28, 2025 

Contact:

Josh Laughlin, Executive Director, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463

Today, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced it has issued a required permit to the Oregon Department of State Lands in order for the recently created Elliott State Research Forest to become operational. Approval ensures Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed terrestrial wildlife found on the 83,000-acre public forest located northeast of Coos Bay are adequately protected for the next 80 years through a Habitat Conservation Plan. A similar required permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service covering ESA-listed salmon on the forest has yet to be issued.  

After over six years of advocacy and negotiation to establish the Elliott State Research Forest, conservationists welcome this next step towards implementation.  

“There are hard-fought protection measures built into the Elliott’s Habitat Conservation Plan to ensure critically imperiled species, like the marbled murrelet and northern spotted owl, are given the necessary safeguards to persist into the future,” says Josh Laughlin, Executive Director of Cascadia Wildlands. “The issuance of the permit today is one of the final steps toward this plan becoming a reality.” 

The Habitat Conservation Plan establishes a 34,000-acre protected area on the Elliott’s west side, where remining older forests will be protected and young, plantation forests will be restored to help create more complex forest structure in the future to benefit imperiled species. Smaller protected areas are strategically designated throughout the rest of the forest as well.  

Public controversy around cutting the Elliott’s remining mature and old-growth forests and short-sighted privatization efforts marred this outstanding public forest for decades. The public and conservation organizations have repeatedly pushed back against these schemes, and a new paradigm for the forest has emerged in recent years. 

“Not long ago, Oregonians successfully fought off a privatization scheme that would have resulted in the forest being clearcut and the public being locked out,” says Laughlin. “Now, we have an enduring plan in place that keeps the forest in public ownership and embraces the conservation values that Oregonians hold closely.” 

Under the newly created Elliott State Research Forest’s 80-year plan, logging will primarily be focused in young plantations forests, and a major emphasis will be placed on salmon and wildlife habitat protection, cutting-edge forest and watershed research, Tribal knowledge and involvement, recreation, education, and carbon storage to help blunt the climate crisis. 

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Additional background:  

Cascadia Wildlands and partners have successfully confronted efforts in the past to privatize the Elliott, including securing an Oregon Supreme Court victory in 2019 halting the sale of the 788-acre East Hakki Ridge parcel to the timber industry. This privatization scheme was in direct response to a successful 2012 lawsuit brought by Cascadia Wildlands and legal partners. That case halted dozens of old-growth timber sales on the Elliott, Clatsop and Tillamook state forests, where threatened marbled murrelets were nesting. 

Additionally, the State Land Board, which oversees the Elliott, advanced a plan to privatize the entire forest beginning in 2015, but that decision was reversed in 2017 after significant public opposition. Instead, the forest was maintained in public ownership after the Oregon legislature appropriated $221 million to buy-out the forest’s obligation to the Common School Fund. 

Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands defends and restores Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. The organization envisions vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia bioregion. www.cascwild.org

The post US Fish and Wildlife Service Issues Permit to Advance Oregon’s Elliott State Research Forest  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   

May 21, 2025

Eugene, Ore.— Conservation groups intervened today in a lawsuit brought by the timber industry and counties seeking to strip northern spotted owls of protections for their critical habitat across millions of acres of forests in California, Oregon and Washington.  

The industry lawsuit attempts to reinstate a critical habitat rollback issued in the final weeks of the first Trump administration that removed nearly 3.5 million acres from the 9.6 million acres that were protected for spotted owls in 2012.  

“The forests these precious owls depend on also provide all of us with benefits like clean water, recreation, jobs and climate resiliency,” said Chelsea Stewart-Fusek, an endangered species attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Given Trump’s relentless assaults on our most cherished wildlife and public lands, it’s no surprise that corporate timber interests are resurrecting their attacks on northern spotted owls and the places they live in the name of short-term profit.”  

The northern spotted owl first gained critical habitat protection in 1992, and those were adjusted in 2012 under the Obama administration. That rule was challenged in court by the timber industry, resulting in a settlement and a January 2021 designation excluding 3.5 million acres from critical habitat protection, nearly all on public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.  

Just 10 months later, the Biden administration rescinded the final designation and instead finalized a proposed rule that excluded 204,294 acres instead of 3.5 million acres. That Biden administration rule is being challenged by the timber industry’s current lawsuit, which is seeking to reinstate the expanded Trump administration revision.   

“This latest attempt by the timber industry to remove protections for northern spotted owls is a cynical move that perpetuates not only the biodiversity and extinction crises, but also the pendulum swing regarding management of the owl’s habitat,” said Susan Jane Brown, attorney with Silvix Resources that represents some of the intervenors. “Rather than accept that the best available science requires the protection of millions of acres of spotted owl habitat to prevent the extinction and foster the recovery of the owl, industry’s lawsuit seeks to unnecessarily stoke controversy.” 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protected the northern spotted owl, a bird found only in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1990. In 2020, because of continued loss of the old forests they need to live and competition with the invasive barred owl, the Service found northern spotted owls should now be classified as endangered but has yet to provide stronger protections for the species. 

“This is a tired story: the timber industry attempting to game the legal system in order to expand logging on our public lands,” said Tom Wheeler, executive director of the Environmental Protection Information Center. “Unfortunately for them, they have to come through us first. We have stood up for the northern spotted owls and science for decades and we aren’t backing down.” 

Additional quotes: 

“The lawyers for Big Timber are cherry-picking a courthouse across the country to attack old-growth spotted owl habitat in our neck of the woods,” said George Sexton, conservation director for Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center. “So we’re intervening to stand up for science and our forests.” 

“Drastically reducing spotted owl habitat protections is not only antithetical to the best science we have for allowing the imperiled species to recover, but puts at risk all the other benefits that protecting these public lands provide to Oregonians, the very people that these lands are supposed to be managed for,” says Nick Cady with Cascadia Wildlands. “Aggressive logging increases wildfire risk, threatens drinking water sources, recreation opportunities, and much more all for the benefit of corporate timber barons.” 

“With northern spotted owl population numbers in precipitous decline, the timber industry seeks to remove protections from a full third — 3.5 million acres — of the species’ critical habitat,” said David Woodsmall, attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “This is a choice by the industry to drive the northern spotted owl to extinction for private profit, antithetical to the American values of conservation embodied in our laws. Western Environmental Law Center has fought for northern spotted owl recovery for decades, and we will use the power of the law to thwart any action that threatens the survival of this iconic species.” 

“The logging industry wants to frame this lawsuit as just about the northern spotted owl, but what’s really at stake are our oldest, most resilient forests, forests that also provide cold, clean rivers for salmon, drinking water for communities and cherished places for countless people,” said John Persell, staff attorney for Oregon Wild. “Trump administration officials have made it clear they view these lands as little more than a source of profit. It’s up to all of us to stand up — for owls, salmon, clean water and carbon-storing forests — and say no.” 

“With less than 3,000 spotted owls left and a population that is declining precipitously, this challenge is a slap in the face to conservation and the survival of this species. Any reduction in acreage of critical habitat could be this species’ death knell,” said Joe Liebezeit, statewide conservation director for Bird Alliance of Oregon. 

“Everything needs a home to survive,” said Dave Werntz, science and conservation director at Conservation Northwest. “The northern spotted owl is no exception.” 

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Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands defends and restores Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. The organization envisions vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia bioregion. www.cascwild.org

The post Legal Intervention Defends Northern Spotted Owl Habitat  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Eugene, OR — Conservation groups secured a victory as a federal court rejected the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) controversial Siuslaw HLB (“Harvest Land Base”) Project. The court held the agency’s proposed multi-decadal and aggressive logging plan near several communities west of Eugene, violated critical environmental review requirements.

Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild, with attorneys at Crag Law Center, brought suit arguing that the agency ignored the project’s potential impacts on soils, drinking water, invasive weeds, and threatened wildlife. The organizations also raised concerns about the cumulative effects of the Siuslaw HLB Project and the overlapping N126 Project, another Bureau of Land Management logging proposal a different judge ruled unlawful in late March. Federal law requires the agency to weigh the negative effects of logging  against any claimed benefits from timber production — a step the Bureau of Land Management neglected.

“The Bureau of Land Management routinely disregards the serious risks that many of their logging projects impose,” said Nick Cady with Cascadia Wildlands. “We lose valuable, rare ecosystems and with it, wildfire resilience and drinking water quality, every time these mature forests are irresponsibly logged.” 

The Court ruled in favor of the conservation groups, finding that the Bureau of Land Management did not take the legally required “hard look” at the environmental impacts. Further, in his Opinion, Judge Kasubhai concluded that “This is not a case where the Court was unable to determine whether there may be significant effects. Rather, the Court has explicitly found [] that substantial questions exist over whether the Siuslaw Plan may have significant impacts. Under the clear rule set forth in the case law cited above, an EIS [environmental impact statement] must be prepared in light of that finding.”Accordingly, BLM’s choice not to take a hard look at the environmental consequences of its decision and prepare an environmental impact statement violated federal law.

“The Judge offered a strong rebuke of the agency’s shell game analysis, wherein the BLM refused to analyze impacts to key issues like sensitive soils, imperiled species, and invasive species, claiming that such impacts were either already addressed or would be in the future. But in truth, the agency’s approach meant that these critical issues would never be addressed in the manner that the law requires,” said Oliver Stiefel, Senior Staff Attorney Crag Law Center.

The Siuslaw HLB Project sought to log 13,225 acres of public forests in the Coast Range foothills. The Bureau of Land Management’s own planning documents acknowledged that the project would increase spread of invasive weeds, decrease slope stability and destroy soil health, and risked serious harm to numerous protected species (special status, bureau sensitive, or endangered), decrease fire resilience, and contaminate and degrade drinking water contamination. Notwithstanding, the agency dismissed these risks as insignificant.

“Whether it’s due to poor analysis or attempts to log old-growth trees for profit, the courts continue to reject the BLM’s unlawful logging projects,” said John Persell of Oregon Wild. “Clearcutting public lands, destroying wildlife habitat, endangering local communities — this is exactly the type of logging President Trump and his allies are now pushing on a larger scale. It’s not legal, it’s not what the public wants, and we’re going to keep fighting it.” 

Local residents have also voiced strong opposition, citing risks such as drinking water contamination, increased wildfire hazards, soil erosion, invasive species introduction and the destruction of wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities. The agency was unfazed by these concerns. It is encouraging to see federal courts in Oregon recognizing the problems associated with poor environmental analysis and serious risks those shortfalls pose to our forests.

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The organizations are represented by attorneys from the Crag Law Center and Cascadia Wildlands.

Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands is a 501c3 non-profit with over 12,000 members and supporters whose mission is to defend and restore Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. We envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia bioregion.  

Oregon Wild represents 20,000 members and supporters who share our mission to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and water as an enduring legacy. Our goal is to protect areas that remain intact while striving to restore areas that have been degraded. 

Crag Law Center is a nonprofit environmental law center based in Portland, Oregon that  supports community efforts to protect and sustain the Pacific Northwest’s natural legacy. Implementing a unique model of legal aid for the environment, Crag balances the scales of justice by offering free and low-cost legal services to people who are working on the ground to protect our environment, climate and communities.

The post Court Rejects Coast Range Clearcutting Project first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 22, 2025

Roseburg, OR — Today, Earth Day April 22nd, 2025 activists rallied in opposition to a Bureau of Land Management plan to log old-growth forests on federally-managed public lands in the Umpqua River watershed. Conservation groups filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management in September 2024 over the controversial  Blue and Gold logging project. The non-violent rally, organized by Cascadia Wildlands and Umpqua Watersheds, coincides with an auction of several of the logging units within the project dubbed the Yellow Panther Sale. The protest is focused on the project as a whole. 

Originally proposed under the Biden administration, the Blue and Gold project targets thousands of acres of the last remaining old-growth forest in the region. The project is in an area that is ecologically significant for the imperilled spotted owl and marbled murrelet. Science shows old-growth forests are more resilient to wildfire, while logging increases wildfire risk for decades. Conservationists and community members opposed the project then, as they do under the Trump administration. 

“Today, our community is telling the federal government that we will not tolerate illegal old-growth logging on public lands,” said Madeline Cowen, Grassroots Organizer for Cascadia Wildlands. “Logging old-growth and mature forests increases risks to communities — everyone should be angry about this project.” 

The Trump administration has shown their support for industrial logging projects, issuing executive orders to increase industrial logging on federal lands. Researchers have sounded the alarm pointing to science showing that aggressive logging in backcountry forests and old-growth forests increases wildfire risk.

Certain areas of the Blue and Gold Project fall under this category, with well-spaced, age-varied trees throughout the project. A former Bureau of Land Management contract surveyor who worked within the project concluded that trees in and around the project likely reach and exceed 1000 years in age. Cascadia Wildlands volunteers who surveyed the area recorded similar findings. This differs from what the agency claims is present in the project, with the Environmental Assessment, stating that the trees “range from 40 to 140 years old.”The EA found “no significant impact,” a finding that conservation groups are challenging. 

The project has some of the last remaining unlogged, carbon-storing older forests in the region.The Bureau of Land Management plans to aggressively log and build roads in old-growth habitat essential to imperiled species and fire resilience. Agency road building plans are one of the loopholes used to log old-growth trees that would otherwise be illegal to remove in most circumstances. 

“We are protesting because this project targets old-growth forests in Douglas County,” said Francis Etherington, a longtime forest advocate and local resident. “Motivated by arbitrary timber targets, the government is putting our communities, clean drinking water and wildlife habitat at greater risk.”

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More information about the Blue and Gold project can be found in ProPublica’s investigative piece, Despite Biden’s Promise to Protect Old Forests, His Administration Keeps Approving Plans to Cut Them Down.

PHOTOS: to be updated throughout the day and evening of April 22, 2025 HERE. 

PHOTOS of threatened forests within the Blue and Gold project area from summer and fall of 2024. 

The post Federal Land Agency Auctions Old-Growth Forest on Earth Day, Protesters Rally in Roseburg to Oppose the Project first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.