by Josh Laughlin, Executive Director
Cascadia Wildlands
While the Biden administration has identified the need to enact mature and old-growth forest protections through Executive Order 14072, its Bureau of Land Management is planning reckless older forest timber sales at a breakneck place in western Oregon. The Blue and Gold timber sale located southwest of Eugene is the next one on the chopping block.
Because you and I know these priceless legacy trees are worth more standing for the myriad values they offer, including clean water, carbon storage, fish and wildlife habitat, and unparalleled recreation, we will continue to unleash grassroots organizing, litigation and policy campaigns to safeguard Cascadia’s storybook forests.
Please join Cascadia Wildlands in this effort today. Your gift during November will be generously matched by long-time business partner Mountain Rose Herbs until we raise $5,000. And when you sign up as a sustaining donor at $15 or more each month, we will send you a Cascadia Wildlands-emblazoned, 21 oz. Hydro Flask water bottle.
The Bureau of Land Management claims trees in Blue and Gold logging units are 140 years old. Our field visits and the agency’s own internal documents tell another story — towering trees 6-8 feet wide and 400-600 years old.
To make matters worse, the agency has done all it can to diminish the impacts the Blue and Gold timber sale would have on imperiled species, like marbled murrelets and northern spotted owls. The agency’s own personnel have come to us to share concerns about the shenanigans taking place behind closed doors.
That’s why we are taking them to court. In September, we filed a legal complaint with our conservation partners, and with your help, we will hold the Bureau of Land Management accountable to our foundational environmental laws in order to stop the Blue and Gold timber sale.
Please make a gift today. Your $50 becomes $100, $250 becomes $500 and so on because our business stalwart Mountain Rose Herbs will match your contribution until we raise $5,000. Thank you in advance for helping us keep our remaining old-growth forests standing.
Blue and Gold is just one of over one dozen reckless timber sales on public land in western Oregon that we are contesting. Because of your support, our success in stopping this out-of-control agency has been remarkable.
In recent months, courts deemed the IVM timber sale on the Medford BLM District and the Siuslaw HLB timber sale on the Eugene BLM District illegal after we and our conservation allies sued. The rulings resulted in protection of thousands of acres of once-threatened mature and old-growth forests located in some of our favorite watersheds, including the Rogue and Siuslaw.
Cascadia Wildlands and supporters like you have also enjoyed recent success keeping threatened old-growth forests standing on private industrial forestland. Perhaps you heard the news in early summer that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2022 District Court ruling in Cascadia Wildlands et al v. Scott Timber Co. that prevents the corporation from clearcutting old-growth forest within a former parcel of Oregon’s Elliott State Forest in the Coast Range northeast of Coos Bay.
The court held that the proposed clearcutting of the 355-acre Benson Ridge tract would harm the threatened marbled murrelet, a unique and critically imperiled seabird that nests in coastal old-growth forests, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. This precedent-setting case marks the first time a private timber corporation in Oregon has been held to account for violations of the federal Endangered Species Act.
If there is anything we have learned over the years, it is that we must maintain pressure and not let our guard down. With this approach and with your support, we have developed a winning formula to defeat irresponsible land and water management with a goal of keeping Cascadia wild.
The formula looks like this:
- Track land and water management proposals on state and federal public land by reading agency proposals and documents
- Field check timber sales and other egregious natural resource projects to gather and analyze data and to see first-hand what is at stake
- Educate the public and policy makers about the impacts of priority projects and spur them into action
- Submit technical comments to agencies to inform project outcomes and build legal records
- Litigate projects when they violate bedrock laws, like the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act
This time-tested formula is the reason we put so much stock into our WildCAT (all-volunteer Cascadia Action Team) and highly sought-after legal internship programs. These programs help us build the public momentum required to win and also help us cultivate the next generation of advocates.
In addition to stopping egregious timber sales and advancing contemporary policy to permanently protect mature and old-growth forests, we will be focusing on a suite of other conservation priorities in the coming year, including:
- Ensuring imperiled upper Willamette River spring Chinook salmon and bull trout are given a fighting chance at recovery in the McKenzie River watershed by holding the Eugene Water and Electric Board accountable for its failure to ensure required fish passage at Trailbridge dam
- Advancing city-wide policy to incentivize all-electric new construction in Eugene and make building decarbonization more accessible to residents to ensure the city meets its Climate Recovery Ordinance goals
- Advocating for stronger protections for recovering gray wolves in the Pacific West as the species faces unprecedented levels of poaching and lethal control, particularly in Oregon
While the threats to our special bioregion continue to mount, we are grateful to have you by our side in our fight to keep it wild in Cascadia. Thank you for all your support!
PS: Don’t forget your gift will be matched in November by friends at Mountain Rose Herbs until we raise $5,000. And we will send you a versatile, 21 .oz Cascadia Wildlands-branded Hydro Flask when you sign up as a monthly sustainer at $15 or more per month.