nepa

Press Release: Conservation Groups Challenge BLM’s “Big League” Logging Project Due to Impacts on Imperiled Spring Chinook Salmon Habitat and Other Values

August 1, 2025November 7, 2023 by kaley

November 7, 2023 — Today, conservation organizations Willamette Riverkeeper, Cascadia Wildlands, and Oregon Wild filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), challenging the agency’s authorization of the approximately 4,600-acre Big League Project in the Calapooia and Mohawk River Watersheds northeast of Eugene. According to the groups’ complaint, the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to take the required “hard look” at the impacts that the Big League Project would have on a host of environmental values, including spotted owl habitat, carbon storage, stream flows, and water quality. Specifically, this project plans to clearcut the last and best older forest stands in the Calapooia and Mohawk River Watersheds.

Statement on the 9th Circuit Court Ruling Dismissing our Portland Teargas Case

August 1, 2025February 1, 2023 by kaley

In 2020, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) descended on Portland escalating police violence against people demanding an end to racist police violence. DHS agents used unprecedented amounts of teargas, pepper spray, and other chemical munitions on the crowds. Thousands of Portland residents were exposed to harmful chemicals known to cause cancer, … Read more

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.

VICTORY! Court Halts Roadside Post-fire Logging Project

August 1, 2025November 5, 2021 by kaley

November 5, 2021 — Today for the second time this year, a federal court halted U.S. Forest Service (Forest Service) plans to carry out extensive post-fire roadside logging. In granting a preliminary injunction, the court stopped planned commercial logging along 400 miles of roads within the Willamette National Forest. Federal District Judge Michael McShane’s order states: “Given the immense scale of this Project, which allows the felling of trees along 404 miles of forest roads, Plaintiffs [Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, and Willamette Riverkeeper] have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the claim that the Forest Service may not use the road repair and maintenance [Categorical Exclusion] to avoid [National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)] review,” page 11. The Forest Service will be largely precluded from commencing logging until the court has heard and decided on the case, likely in early 2022.

Victory! Court rules GE Salmon Approval Unlawful!

August 1, 2025November 10, 2020 by nsc425

November 10, 2020 — On November 5, 2020, a federal court ruled in favor of Cascadia Wildlands’ lawsuit that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) violated core federal laws when it approved the first-ever genetically engineered (GE) animal: a GE salmon! This decision is a huge victory for wild salmon, the environment, and our fishing communities.

Environmental, public health, and social justice groups file legal challenge against DHS citing lack of analysis on impacts of teargas to human health and the environment

August 1, 2025October 23, 2020 by nsc425

October 20, 2020 — With no regard for health or safety, the federal government blatantly violated federal environmental law when it flooded Portland and the surrounding communities with an unprecedented amount of dangerous chemical weapons, a lawsuit filed today by a broad coalition of environmental justice and civil rights advocates alleges.

BLOG: Environmental Rollbacks Gut Core Conservation Laws

August 4, 2025August 6, 2020 by kaley

Trump Administration Pushing Through Environmental Rollbacks During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Gene McCarthy Cascadia Wildlands Legal Intern, Summer 2020 It can be exhausting keeping up with the constant barrage of unfortunate news covering the current administration’s breakneck efforts to remove environmental safeguards. Unfortunately, the past six months during the COVID-19 pandemic have been no exception. … Read more

INTERN-al UPDATE: A Snowy Field Check in Flat Country

July 23, 2025March 30, 2020 by sam

By Courtney Kaltenbach Field Checking Intern for Cascadia Wildlands, Spring 2020 On a cool Saturday morning, over twenty people met in the Cascadia parking lot to prepare to go out on the first public field checking trip of the year into the Flat Country timber sale. Covid-19 had been declared an international pandemic three days … Read more

Action Needed: Trump Attacks Bedrock Environmental Law

August 1, 2025January 13, 2020 by nsc425

January 9, 2020 — the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released its blueprint to dismantle longstanding bedrock protections for communities, public lands, and wildlife. Designed to weaken the role of the public in service of extractive interests such as oil and gas companies, CEQ’s proposed rule is intended to empower federal agencies to advance the Trump administration’s reckless agenda against public lands and the climate.

Cascadia Wildlands and Allies Challenge Enormous North Landscape Timber Sale

August 1, 2025November 20, 2019 by nsc425

November 20, 2019 — Cascadia Wildlands, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Oregon Wild, and Soda Mountain Wilderness Council have filed suit to stop a 9,000-acre timber project in Southern Oregon that will allow logging in threatened spotted owl habitat contrary to federal laws. The project will occur next to the treasured Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, further degrading surrounding forests.

Join Cascadia