Despite the dual worsening climate and biodiversity crises, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is pushing forward with a controversial plan to log over a thousand of acres of pristine, resilient old-growth forest habitat on public lands in Oregon’s Coast Range. The Blue and Gold logging project, located west of Yoncalla in the Umpqua River watershed, has some of the last remaining unlogged, carbon-storing older forests in the region. The agency plans to aggressively log and build roads in old-growth habitat essential to imperiled species including the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet. The main justification for the Blue and Gold project is, unsurprisingly, to meet timber production targets. Take action today to urge your elected officials to halt the Blue and Gold project.
In the works since 2019, BLM released an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Blue and Gold project on April 27, 2022, just five days after President Biden issued Executive Order 14072 directing federal agencies to protect remaining old-growth forest. Two days later, the agency pulled the EA, citing a need for internal review. Now, the agency has rushed through a review and signed off on the egregious project a mere three weeks after the public comment period ended. Completely failing to follow the President’s direction to expand “bold efforts to tackle the climate crisis.” Instead, BLM is moving forward with its plans to log and build roads in ancient forest habitat and has already auctioned off the first two timber sales for the project. Take action now to ensure the Blue and Gold project stops here.
The agency says the forests in the project area range from 40-140 years old. Yet thorough WildCAT field checking efforts found that many of the stands are much older — with some groves reaching upwards of 600 years old. The BLM is moving forward with actions that would remove or degrade over 1,500 acres of incredibly important spotted owl habitat and punch new roads right through breathtaking old-growth groves, all while increasing fire hazard in “regeneration harvest” (aka clearcut) units for at least the next 50 years.
Please help us stop Blue & Gold by calling on elected officials to speak out against this project.