The Trump administration is targeting public lands, wrongfully directing agencies to get out the cut at the expense of all other values. This means our forested watersheds are on the chopping block. Take a few minutes below to tell local BLM staff you do not want to see these public forests exploited!

Submit your comments on the Big League logging project to BLM by Friday, March 21st, at 4 p.m. PST. We’ve provided a template to help you get started, but be sure to customize your comment for the greatest impact. If you live nearby or have special ties to the area, let BLM know! If you want additional support crafting your comments, reach out! Thank you for advocating for the critters and communities of Cascadia. 

The post Help Strike Out the Big League Logging Project first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Grace Brahler, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Madeline Cowen, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463

Feds Solicit Public Input for Climate Resilience Rulemaking

On April 20, 2023, the two federal agencies charged with overseeing federally-managed public forests in the US released a much-anticipated report defining, identifying, and producing an initial inventory of mature and old-growth forests. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) inventory, which will continue to expand, identified more than 32 million acres of old-growth and around 80 million acres of mature forest across 200 types of forests. The inventory was ordered by President Biden in his 2022 Earth Day Executive Order, which marked the first time the federal government clearly acknowledged the many ecosystem services and climate benefits of our country’s last remaining mature and old-growth forests. The initial inventory found that old-growth forest represents 18% and mature forest another 45% of all forested lands managed by the Forest Service and BLM. In addition, the Forest Service announced a proposed rulemaking process. The agency is asking for public input on how to adapt current policies to protect, conserve, and manage national forests and grasslands for climate resilience.

“We are pleased to see the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management meet the ambitious deadline set last Earth Day to define and inventory the remaining mature and old-growth forests on federally-managed public lands,” said Grace Brahler, wildlands director with Cascadia Wildlands. “However, the glaring shortcoming remains that mature and old-growth forests are not protected from logging while this process unfolds. As we move into this next phase, we continue to call for durable legal protections for these forests for their myriad benefits, including as profoundly effective carbon sinks.”

“As we get ready to celebrate yet another Earth Day characterized by compounding biodiversity and climate crises, we ask federal agencies to permanently protect mature and old-growth forests as one of our most powerful natural climate solutions,” said Madeline Cowen, grassroots organizer with Cascadia Wildlands. “Older forests filter our drinking water, remove climate pollution from the air we breathe, and increase our resilience to uncharacteristically severe wildfires. These forests are worth far more standing.”

Cascadia Wildlands invites the public to join us and our partner organizations for an Earth Day Rally for Forests and Climate on Saturday, April 22nd, in Eugene, Oregon, calling for lasting protections for public mature and old-growth forests from logging.

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The post Press Release: Federal Agencies Release Joint Report on Mature and Old-Growth Forests first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Erin Hogan, Crag Law Center

Federal Agency Plan Would Intensively Log Remaining Spotted Owl Reserves

Eugene, OR — 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.

“The BLM cannot continue to chase timber volume production at the expense of our communities,” said Nick Cady with Cascadia Wildlands. “Not only are we losing the few older forest stands that remain in the coast range, but admittedly the agency is putting us at increased risk from forest fires and landslides, and jeopardizing water quality. The little timber volume being generated from these mature, public forests is just not worth it.”

The targeted forests are home to at least four federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed species: northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and Chinook and Oregon Coast coho salmon, along with listing candidate species the red tree vole, which is a candidate for ESA listing. Most of the forests slated for logging are mature and old-growth forests that provide suitable habitat for these species, but the agency dismissed impacts to these imperiled species as insignificant without any actual review of the impacts the logging would have on the ground. 

Many of the local residents strongly oppose the logging, as they believe its negative impacts–including drinking water contamination, increased wildfire hazard, loss of recreation opportunities, soil erosion, further road construction, and outright habitat destruction–strongly outweigh any benefits associated with timber production.

“If they remain standing, our public forests provide so many important public services, including clean water, habitat for fish & wildlife, climate stability, fire resilience, recreation and quality of life. Clearcut logging will sacrifice all these values, and for what? The private profits of a few in the timber industry. BLM has a responsibility to tell the truth but they are hiding the fact that the public is getting a rotten deal here,”  said Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, including failure to take the requisite “hard look” at environmental impacts and failure to conduct any site-specific analyses or prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. The BLM is required under federal environmental law to consider the negative impacts the proposed logging will have on our communities and weigh those impacts against the alleged benefits of timber volume generation logging. Many of the local residents strongly oppose the logging, which they believe will create that the negative impacts–including contamination of to their drinking water, increases in fire hazard, loss of recreation opportunities, soil erosion and stability, further road construction, and outright habitat destruction–that which elimination strongly outweighs any benefits associated with timber production.  

“The BLM is attempting to evade its legal obligation to consider and publicly disclose the impact these clearcuts will have on sensitive wildlife species, forest health, carbon storage and climate change, water quality, and wildfire hazard,” said attorney Erin Hogan. “The agencies tasked with managing our public lands must be accountable to the public they serve.”

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

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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 Press Release: Conservationists Challenge Coast Range Logging Plan  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Bethany Cotton, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Susan Jane Brown, Western Environmental Law Center
Doug Heiken, Oregon Wild

Eugene, OR — 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.

The groups’ “significant new information” letter details new law and policy as well as changed on-the-ground conditions stemming from the 2020 Holiday Farm wildfire nearby. The Forest Service’s 2020 environmental impact statement approving the 5,000-acre timber sale does not consider these important issues as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. With the letter, the groups are asking the agency to perform supplemental environmental review of the new information that arose since 2020.

The timber sale is controversial in part because the Forest Service has not attempted to clearcut older forests in the Pacific Northwest for many years. The sale is opposed by Dr. Jerry Franklin and Dr. Norm Johnson (their story map here), two of the authors of the landmark Northwest Forest Plan; as well as Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR). The area was occupied by tree sitters in 2021 and 2022.

“The Flat Country timber sale would harm the climate, destroy thousands of acres of mature and old-growth forests, harm threatened northern spotted owls, and further impair the McKenzie River Watershed that is still reeling from a 2020 megafire driven by climate change,” said Susan Jane Brown, Wildlands and Wildlife Program director at the Western Environmental Law Center. “There is absolutely zero reason for the Biden administration—after committing to conserve mature and old-growth forests earlier this year—to pursue this Trump-era logging project when so much has changed. This is the Forest Service’s last chance to heed this new information before it makes a tragic and avoidable mistake.”

“The Biden administration’s Earth Day executive order is commendable because it at long last acknowledges the importance of safeguarding mature and old-growth forests, but it contains a glaring error in failing to recognize the ongoing threat logging poses to our last remaining mature and old-growth forests,” said Bethany Cotton, conservation director for Cascadia Wildlands. “If the Biden administration is serious about protecting old growth and safeguarding our climate, wildlife habitat, and drinking water sources, it must withdraw this terrible logging project.”

“Anyone who has visited the Flat Country sale can plainly see this is a commercial logging grab,” said Doug Heiken, restoration and conservation coordinator for Oregon Wild. “Many areas slated for destruction are fully functioning mature and old-growth forests—the exact types of systems the Forest Service claims it is trying to restore. To say this logging sale is about forest health, wildlife habitat, or fire mitigation is laughable.”

The significant new law and policy:
In “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” (executive order 14008), President Biden orders his administration to:

“…organize and deploy the full capacity of its agencies to combat the climate crisis to implement a Government-wide approach that reduces climate pollution in every sector of the economy; increases resilience to the impacts of climate change; protects public health; conserves our lands, waters, and biodiversity…”

In “Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies” (executive order 14072), President Biden emphasizes the importance of conserving old-growth forests:

“Globally, forests…play an irreplaceable role in reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions…America’s forests absorb more than 10 percent of annual United States economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions. Conserving old-growth and mature forests on Federal lands while supporting and advancing climate-smart forestry and sustainable forest products is critical to protecting these and other ecosystem services provided by those forests.”
 
“My Administration will manage forests on Federal lands, which include many mature and old-growth forests, to promote their continued health and resilience; retain and enhance carbon storage; conserve biodiversity; mitigate the risk of wildfires; enhance climate resilience; enable subsistence and cultural uses; provide outdoor recreational opportunities; and promote sustainable local economic development…”

Finally, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack issued “Climate Resilience and Carbon Stewardship of America’s National Forests and Grasslands” (secretarial memorandum 1077-004) to meet some of the obligations of the Department of Agriculture imposed by EO 14072. In addition to recognizing the threat posed to national forests from climate change and the value of and role that forests play in combating the climate crisis, the secretary directed the Chief of the Forest Service to “carry out immediate actions to accelerate climate resilience and carbon stewardship.”

The Flat Country timber sale is antithetical to this significant new law and policy because rather than conserve older forests, the timber sale will log 3,115 acres of forest older than 80 years of age.

The significant new circumstances (wildfire):
On Labor Day 2020, several wildfires sparked in western Oregon, driven by high winds and temperatures, low humidity, drought conditions, and climate change. One of these fires, the Holiday Farm Fire, burned more than 173,000 acres or 27% of the McKenzie River Watershed to the west of the proposed Flat Country timber sale. Collectively, the Holiday Farm Fire and other Labor Day 2020 wildfires burned millions of acres of federal public lands and nonfederal lands, causing dramatic changes to forest and vegetation composition. The quality and arrangement of suitable wildlife habitat has changed significantly as a result of the Holiday Farm Fire and the other 2020 Labor Day Fires, requiring a reanalysis of the effects of the Flat Country timber sale.

The Forest Service published the Flat Country final environmental impact statement in June 2020, three months before the onset of the Labor Day fires. Numerous assumptions and analyses in that authorization are no longer valid in light of the extensive change in vegetative conditions as a result of these large fires.

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The post Press Release: Mature and old-growth logging sale undermines Biden climate policy; threatens McKenzie River, habitat first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contact:
Josh Laughlin, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 844-8182
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, (503) 484-7495
Bob Sallinger, Portland Audubon Society, (503) 380-9728
Tanya Sanerib, Crag Law Center, (503) 525-2722

The post Press Release: State of Oregon Suspends 10 State Forest Timber Sales in Marbled Murrelet Habitat first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.