Press Room

Press Release: Conservationists Challenge Coast Range Logging Plan

September 8, 2022 by kaley

September 8, 2022 — Today, Oregon-based conservation organizations Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild challenged the Bureau of Land Management’s (“BLM”) Siuslaw Field Office’s plan to log 13,225 acres of public forests in the coast range foothills west of Eugene. The agency’s Siuslaw HLB (“Harvest Land Base”) Project will clearcut these mature and old-growth forests that border many communities and residences west of Eugene. The BLM admits that this logging will increase fire hazard risks, slope instability and landslide risks, and drinking water contamination for these communities, but dismissed concerns raised about these impacts as insignificant.

Press Release: Lawsuit Challenges Washington’s Failure to Enact Wolf Management Rules

July 22, 2025August 5, 2022 by kaley

August 5, 2022 — Five conservation groups filed a lawsuit today asking a state court to enforce Gov. Jay Inslee’s order directing state wildlife officials to enact wolf management rules. The rules should have outlined what steps must be taken before wolves can be killed for conflict with livestock.

Press Release: Mature and old-growth logging sale undermines Biden climate policy; threatens McKenzie River, habitat

July 22, 2025August 2, 2022 by kaley

August 2, 2022 — Today, old-growth forest and wildlife advocates provided the U.S. Forest Service the means to reconsider the pending Trump-era “Flat Country” timber sale in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest. The vast majority of the proposed logging would be in mature and old-growth forests, with over 1,000 acres of clearcutting, even though President Biden this year ordered his administration to prioritize conserving these forests as a crucial climate protection.

Press Release: Eugene City Council Advances Policy to Transition New Construction to All-Electric, Sets Ambitious Targets for Decarbonizing Existing Buildings

July 23, 2025July 27, 2022 by kaley

July 27, 2022 — In a major step toward a clean energy future, the Eugene City Council voted today to move forward with a suite of measures advancing the transition off of gas in homes and buildings. The motions include one directing staff to draft ordinance language to mandate that all new homes be constructed 100% electric by June 1, 2023; a second advancing conversations to transition new commercial and industrial construction to require all electric; and a third directing the City Manager

Press Release: Legal Warning Challenges Plan to Log Thousands of Acres of Oregon’s Old-Growth Forest Reserves

July 23, 2025July 5, 2022 by kaley

July 5, 2022 — A coalition of Oregon conservation organizations notified the Bureau of Land Management today it intends to sue the agency to protect marbled murrelets and coastal martens from a plan by the agency to log thousands of acres of old-growth forest in areas designated as late-successional reserves. The reserves were designated as part of the Northwest Forest Plan to protect the two threatened species, as well as hundreds of others.

Press Release: Court Halts Logging of Elliott State Forest Tract Sold to Private Timber Company

July 23, 2025June 28, 2022 by kaley

June 28, 2022 — Today, a U.S. District Court judge issued a ruling preventing Scott Timber from clearcutting old growth forest previously part of the Elliott State Forest. The court found that the proposed logging of the “Benson Ridge” parcel by the subsidiary of Roseburg Forest Products would harm and harass threatened marbled murrelets, in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. The court’s ruling permanently enjoins logging of the occupied murrelet habitat.

Press Release: Court again forces feds to reconsider wolverine protections, this time using science

July 23, 2025May 26, 2022 by kaley

May 26, 2022 — Today, a federal judge invalidated a Trump administration decision denying protections to imperiled wolverines under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (original complaint here). This is the second time a court has rejected a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to deny protections for wolverines, which number only about 300 in the contiguous U.S. Today’s court order immediately reinstates wolverines’ “candidate” status as a species proposed for listing.

Press Release: Conservationists Challenge Logging Plan

July 23, 2025May 26, 2022 by kaley

May 26, 2022 — Late yesterday, Oregon-based conservation organizations Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild challenged the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Siuslaw Field Office’s plan to log public lands west of Eugene across seven watersheds. The agency’s “N126 Late Successional Reserve Landscape Plan Project” is one of the largest logging proposals on public lands in Oregon in decades. The targeted forests are home to at least three federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed species: northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and Oregon Coast coho salmon, along with the red tree vole, which is currently a candidate for ESA listing. The agency failed entirely to consider impacts to these species, amongst other errors.

Press Release: Oregon’s North Coast Red Tree Voles Get New Shot at Crucial Protections

August 1, 2025May 24, 2022 by kaley

Red tree vole (photo by Northwest Ecosystem Survey Team, NEST).

May 24, 2022 — In a legal victory, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed today to reconsider whether red tree voles on Oregon’s North Coast need protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Service has until January 31, 2024, to make a decision.

Press Release: 2021 Worst Year for Oregon’s Wolf Population Growth Since Return

July 23, 2025April 20, 2022 by kaley

April 20, 2022 — Conservationists are concerned about the plateau of Oregon’s wolf population in 2021, largely resulting from poaching and agency killings. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (ODFW) annual wolf population report, released late yesterday, shows Oregon’s wolf population grew by the lowest percentage (just over one percent) since wolves naturally returned to the state. The 2021 minimum population of 175 wolves increased by just two animals from the 2020 minimum count of 173.

Press Release: Oregon Department of Forestry Moves Flawed Endangered Species Plan Forward

July 23, 2025March 17, 2022 by kaley

March 17, 2022 — The Oregon Department of Forestry and the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a draft environmental impact statement today for a habitat conservation plan that regulates logging on more than 600,000 acres of state forest in western Oregon.

The plan would allow the department to continue to log and harm endangered species, including coho and Chinook salmon, northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets and others, for 70 years in exchange for some habitat protection.

Press Release: Legal Victory Saves Threatened Old-growth Forest in Southern Oregon

July 23, 2025March 14, 2022 by kaley

March 11, 2022 — The Medford District Bureau of Land Management (BLM) “Lost Antelope” timber sale would have: Removed fire-resilient old-growth trees located in the “Wildland Urban Interface” and increased wildfire hazard to nearby ranches, farms and communities. Conducted “regeneration” and “gap creation” logging activities that resemble clearcutting. Resulted in the establishment of dense young even-age timber plantations that tend to burn at stand-replacing intensity.

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