Photos by Jacob Ritley, Cascadia Wildlands’ Tongass Groundtruth Expedition, 2016. Thanks to LUSH Foundation for their generous support. Southeast Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago is made up of thousands of islands large and small. Small boats and floatplanes are the dominant modes of transportation. Old-growth clearcutting is ongoing this summer on the Big Thorne timber sale, Prince of … Continue reading Tongass Groundtruth Expedition: 2016
Oregon Board of Forestry Sued for Failure to Protect Marbled Murrelet Habitat
September 30, 2016 — Four conservation organizations filed suit today against the Oregon Board of Forestry over dismissal of a petition requesting the Board identify and protect important old-growth forest areas for the marbled murrelet, a seabird threatened with extinction. Under Oregon law, the Board was supposed to have provided such protection after the seabird was protected as threatened under the state Endangered Species Act in 1987.
Press Release: Lawsuit Filed to Protect Threatened Marbled Murrelet from Logging on Former Elliott State Forest
August 25, 2016 — Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity and Portland Audubon filed a lawsuit in federal court today seeking to block Scott Timber Company from logging a portion of a 355-acre parcel of land that until 2014 was part of the 93,000-acre Elliott State Forest and provides habitat for the threatened marbled murrelet. The Endangered Species Act strictly prohibits “take” (harm, harassment or killing) of threatened species like the murrelet, which, unlike any other seabird, nests on the wide branches of large, old trees, making a daily trip of up to 35 miles inland to bring fish to its young.
Cascadia Wildlands and Conservation Allies Challenge BLM Forest Plans in Oregon
May 16, 2016 — Today, Earthjustice and the Western Environmental Law Center, on behalf of 22 conservation and fishing groups, filed a formal protest with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) objecting to its proposed management plans for western Oregon. The BLM plan eliminates protections for streamside forests, increases clearcutting, and removes 2.6 million acres of these federally managed public forests from the 1994 Clinton Northwest Forest Plan.
Press Release: BLM to Weaken Environmental Protections in Western Oregon
April 12, 2016 — The Bureau of Land Management today released new plans that will guide recreation, wildlife habitat protection, water quality, and logging on 2.6 million acres of federal forests in western Oregon. Home to salmon and ancient forests, these public lands also provide drinking water for nearly 1.8 million Oregonians. If made final, the Proposed Resource Management Plan would weaken key protections of the Northwest Forest Plan that has guided management and ecosystem restoration on these forests for the past two decades.
Lawsuit Challenges Plan to Log Old-growth in Alaska
Cascadia Wildlands yesterday filed suit against the Forest Service challenging approval of the Mitkof Island timber sale, a 4,117-acre old-growth logging project on the Tongass National Forest, near Petersburg in Southeast Alaska. This lawsuit comes close on the heals of our challenge to the Big Thorne timber sale, another big old-growth sale that is currently on … Continue reading Lawsuit Challenges Plan to Log Old-growth in Alaska
Cascadia Challenges BLM Clearcutting Just Northeast of Eugene
January 15, 2015 — Conservation organizations filed a lawsuit today challenging the largest clearcut approved on federal land in Lane County in twenty years. The Second Show timber sale proposes 259 acres of public lands clearcutting and is located on public Bureau of Land Management lands just outside of Springfield, Oregon near Shotgun Creek. Clearcutting will have significant impacts to the watershed, which is already degraded, and will impact a popular recreation area.
WTF?!
By Gabe Scott Cascadia Wildlands filed a lawsuit today to stop the U.S. Forest Service’s Big Thorne timber project on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. Big Thorne is by far the largest logging project on the Tongass National Forest since the region’s two pulp mills closed about 20 years ago. The lawsuit argues … Continue reading WTF?!
Press Release: Sen. Wyden Drops Logging Turducken* Before Holiday
November 26, 2013 — Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands today expressed disappointment with the O&C forest legislation released by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) that affects management of over two-million acres of public forestland in western Oregon. The conservation organization believes that it is a bad deal for the environmental values that make Oregon special and is committed to working with the Senator to see it drastically improved.
Blog: Rhetoric on Tongass Doesn’t Match Actions
by Gabe Scott A nail is being driven in the coffin on Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Is it a coffin for the old-growth logging industry; or for Tongass wolves, deer and salmon? It is up to you to decide. Recent announcements by the Obama administration offer glimmers of hope. Secretary Vilsack’s July 3, … Continue reading Blog: Rhetoric on Tongass Doesn’t Match Actions