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Contact:
Grace Brahler, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463, grace@cascwild.org
Meg Townsend, Center for Biological Diversity, (971) 717-6409, mtownsend@biologicaldiversity.org
Casey Kulla, Oregon Wild, (971) 241-6585, ck@oregonwild.org
Michael Morrison, Pacific Rivers, (707) 845-2885, pdxspike11@gmail.com
Ryan Talbott, WildEarth Guardians, (503) 329-9162, rtalbott@wildearthguardians.org
Quinn Read, Portland Audubon, (206) 979-3074, qread@audubonportland.org
Damon Motz-Storey, Oregon Chapter of Sierra Club, (303) 913-5634, damon.motz-storey@sierraclub.org
Rob Kirschner, The Conservation Angler, (503) 894-0439, rob@theconservationangler.org
Mark Sherwood, Native Fish Society, (503) 344-4218, mark@nativefishsociety.org
Joseph Youren, Audubon Society of Lincoln City, (541) 921-9862, yourenjoseph@gmail.com

PORTLAND, Ore.— Eleven conservation groups today sent a letter calling on Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and the Board of Forestry to protect additional acres of forest lands in the proposed Western Oregon State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan. Their proposed increase in protected mature and old-growth forest land would help safeguard imperiled species like the threatened Oregon Coast coho salmon and marbled murrelet.

Specifically, today’s letter seeks to protect forests older than 80 years in the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests and the Cook Creek watershed because of their ecological value for coastal communities and wildlife. The draft conservation plan is now in the process of being finalized by the Board of Forestry.

“Protecting more mature and old-growth coastal forests would benefit Oregon’s treasured wildlife and sustain coastal communities,” said Meg Townsend, senior freshwater attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We need to protect Cook Creek to safeguard critical spawning habitat for Oregon Coast coho and make sure coastal residents have safe drinking water and recreational opportunities.”

Intact mature and old-growth forests provide important habitat corridors and refuges for wildlife including at-risk species like the marbled murrelet. They also help moderate flooding and runoff occurring more frequently in a changing climate while ensuring water quantity and quality to downstream communities. Older forests are the most resistant and resilient to climate change impacts like wildfire.

Across Oregon, only about 10% of mature and old-growth forests remain, and much less than that remains on the North Coast.

Clearcut logging and related activities like road building and aerial pesticide spraying increase sediment and other pollutants flowing into streams and drinking water sources. No-logging buffers around streams have increased under a settlement agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups. But communities remain concerned about the extent of clearcutting in their drinking watersheds and the short-term and cumulative harms of industrial logging.

This summer, Oregon Wild co-developed a project with NASA to map the extent of logging across watersheds on the North Coast. The analysis revealed that the forested areas many Oregon coastal communities rely on for safe and clean drinking water have been more than 50% clearcut over the past 20 years.

“Forested watersheds are critical for drinking water, as the recent NASA report detailed the extent of logging over the past 20 years,” said Casey Kulla, state forest policy coordinator for Oregon Wild. “With climate change bearing down on us, expanding habitat conservation areas to include the oldest trees will help ensure the continued survival of struggling species, and it will also protect critical sources of drinking water. Logging harms water for years after the clearcut greens up. It is time to act responsibly.”

“At Pacific Rivers, we know that any insult to a watershed will affect everything downstream,” said Mike Morrison, board chair of Pacific Rivers. “This proposed road building and logging is not only unnecessary (clear cuts are never necessary), but the damage that will be caused by road building is certain to impair the overall health of the Cook Creek watershed and its flora and fauna, not just the stream itself.”

“In the face of climate and biodiversity crises, older forests and precious watersheds like Cook Creek must be conserved as valuable climate refugia for imperiled species,” said Grace Brahler, wildlands director with Cascadia Wildlands. “Protecting older forests from logging and damaging road building is vital for the Department of Forestry to achieve the vision laid out in its Climate Change and Carbon Plan.”

“Oregon’s reputation as a leader on environmental issues may be accurate in some cases but when it comes to logging, it is still stuck in the last century,” said Ryan Talbott, Pacific Northwest conservation advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “Extensive, short-sighted clearcutting across the coast range has caused long-term damage to wildlife habitat and streams and rivers that are critical for threatened salmon. Protecting what little mature and old-growth forest remains should be a no-brainer.”

“A Habitat Conservation Plan is meant to balance fish and wildlife habitat and clean water with timber harvest,” said Damon Motz-Storey, chapter director of the Oregon Chapter Sierra Club. “Reopening Cook Creek road to allow logging in the vital Cook Creek watershed would be a grave mistake that would undoubtedly upset any balance the Habitat Conservation Plan achieves.”

The post Press Release: Letter Calls on Gov. Kotek to Protect Old-Growth Forests, Cook Creek Watershed first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

On a bright October morning I had the honor of joining a group of volunteers and staff from Cascadia Wildlands for a day of field checking in the woods.

Field Checking is the tactic of comparing existing conditions in the forest with conditions alleged in Forest Service sale proposals. Often, these proposals irresponsibly misrepresent the state of the forest. Unmarked waterways, old-growth stands, and crucial wildlife are invisible to the abstract paperwork of resource extraction. We’re out here to see if what they’re saying about the forest is true. This was my first time, and the Cascadia Wildlands crew did a great job of orienting me to the task.

We gathered on a forest road spur in the Willamette National Forest north of Blue River, where the Calloway Timber Sale is currently targeting 8,757 acres of Pacific Northwest forest for harvest. Caravanning up the road we set out to inspect the first unit, which was to our right as we ascended upwards of 3000 feet of elevation.

This unit had clearly been previously logged. Stumps and overgrown root bulbs dotted the land as it inclined to a nearby ridge. While this was not an old-growth forest, we set foot into the unit to make note of its many other defining ecological characteristics — various native plant and fungal species, and a wide range of tree species. Then we came quickly upon a large clearing.

This unit (which we found through cores to have trees of 30-40 years of age) and units like it, are often marked for harvest as a thinning measure, with the stated aim of reducing the unit’s fire risk, or increasing ecological functionality. This tactic in itself is questionable.  We found this unit in particular to already contain a clearing, and  did not appear otherwise to be overly dense in its growth pattern. So, the Forest Service’s rationale for harvest on this count was put into question.

We continued our journey through the forest and made note of a variety of tree species. The site contained noble fir, western hemlock, douglas-fir, and western redcedar. Species diversity, or stand complexity, is a sign of a healthy forest — one that does not require intervention to be valuable to local fauna. We noticed plentiful signs of mountain beavers, woodpecker foraging and elk scat.

As we reached the top of the ridge, we made note of the significant increase in slope on the downhill side. Certainly greater than 45 degrees. Steep slopes make for poor harvest candidates. The risk of post-logging erosion and landslides is significant. The potential damage to the ecological health of this ridge and adjacent areas could potentially preclude this unit from any harvest activities.

As noted earlier, the stand contained trees approximately 30-40 years in age. Younger trees at relatively low density lessen the commercial value of the stand. Low density trees, presence of clearings, a steep slope… This was starting to look like a unit the Forest Service should re-evaluate.

Having completed our survey of the first unit, we made our way towards the second. The road that should have taken us into the unit was unrecognizable, it was full of brush, presumably unmaintained for at least a decade or two. Undeterred, the group decided to carry on and hike down the unmaintained road.

As we make progress through the brush, it’s clear that the expired roadway had become a landslide in the recent past. Above us, old-growth Douglas-fir bare their roots to a steep eroded hillside, seeming to be clinging for dear life to the crumbling slope beneath them. Any harvesting activity on this unit would require extensive repair to a road already incredibly ill-positioned to begin with. We make note of these conditions.

The group tacked up into this adjacent old-growth, making quicker time than the eroded roadway allowed. Beautiful, ancient trees extended hundreds of feet into the sky above us, while vine maples sparkled in their fall yellow foliage. Chanterelles peaked out of the duff and the whole group moved in quiet awe, tilting our ears towards a woodpecker’s call. The slope steepened and the way proved difficult, but we continued with our day, taking measurements including DBH (Diameter at Breast Height) and core samples.

This area contained some compelling signs of a slight draw, as earth in a nearby fold in the landscape was beginning to be pushed away from the underlying rock with recurrent flushes. I found myself enamored with the complexity of the forest that we saw that day. Our notes are comprehensive and should well impress upon the Forest Service the incompatibility of this area’s true ecological state with their harvest goals. Thank you to the Cascadia Wildlands crew that shared their knowledge of field checking with me, thank you to my fellow volunteers who became new friends, and thank you to the forest for its breathtaking beauty. There are 361 units in the Calloway sale slated for harvest – and ample evidence these forest lands are incompatible with a harvest regime.

The post BLOG: Field Notes from the Calloway Timber Sale  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

by Chelsea Stewart-Fusek
Cascadia Wildlands Legal Intern, Summer 2020

On a gorgeous day earlier this month, the Willamette Valley Broadband of Great Old Broads for Wilderness joined the Cascadia Wildlands field checking team to survey some of the units in the QMS timber sale in order to help us better understand what is at stake if this sale goes forward.

The QMS project is located on U.S. Forest Service land 20 miles northeast of Sweet Home in the Willamette National Forest. This is a massive sale, encompassing 89,000 acres spanning North from Highway 20 all the way up to Detroit lake, with units bordering on protected wilderness areas and in some of the most scenic locations in the Western Cascades. Included in the sale is the harvest of Unit 166: a particularly large unit which contains incredible old-growth forest as well as rare structural diversity. Here are some of the things that we found:

Riparian Ecosystems

We came across multiple streams in this unit that weren’t marked on the USFS’s project map. At least one appears to be a perennial stream that feeds surrounding bogs. These bogs create unique plant communities and provide important habitat and food supply for insects and reptiles. Each of these waterways would need to be protected by a buffer if USFS logs here.

Large, Old Trees

Numerous large, old-growth trees exist in this unit and it appears it has never been logged—a rare, wonderful sight! We measured multiple, and some were as large as over 70” diameter at breast height. Some of the trees we came across were likely over 150 years old. These huge, old trees store a significant amount of carbon, mitigating the impacts of climate change. They are rare on the landscape as a whole and should be not be removed. Further, large, old trees provide critical habitat for northern spotted owl, red tree vole (“RTV”), and fisher. And when large trees die they create large, high-quality snags, a critical component of this ecosystem. These trees should not only be retained but should also be protected by a buffer, as their root systems are shallow and heavily impacted by disturbance and by the removal of the trees around them.

Incredible Forest Complexity

There is also a high quantity of structures in this unit, known as “legacy structures,” which provide critical habitat complexity for a variety of species, including northern spotted owl prey. These include snags, broken top trees, and downed woody debris. It’s important that USFS retain all such structures, especially because harvest of the stand as a whole will decrease snag and woody debris recruitment long-term, negatively impacting habitat availability and overall forest complexity. Finding this abundance of woody debris and legacy structures is uncommon and the USFS should recognize this is another good reason to drop this unit.

Species Diversity

This unit has spectacular conifer diversity. We identified at least six conifer species in our survey: Douglas fir, hemlock, cedar, grand fir, noble fir, and Alaska yellow cedar. It is rare to find this many conifer species in one area and this diversity should be protected. We also discovered bear scat, cat scat, and are aware of northern spotted owl habitat in the area (critical high-value designated habitat for northern spotted owl is referred to as “RA32”). Red tree vole “RTV” has also been found in this unit. Every tree a vole — or sign of a vole — is found, needs to be protected by a buffer.

A Fire-Regenerated Forest

We came across signs of previous fire in this unit, indicating that the trees here are resilient and that fire has played its natural role on this landscape. This unit should be preserved in its natural state for that reason alone, especially as fire seasons continue to worsen. Preserving fire-resistant trees is critical to reducing fire severity in this area, which is not far from a community.

After field checking this unit, Cascadia Wildlands cannot support the USFS’s plans to cut it. This unit is old-growth forest with incredible structural diversity. It is fire-resilient and contains important habitat features for numerous native species. Simply put, this is an old stand that should be left out of the QMS project. The damaging effects of logging on this area’s ecosystem do not outweigh the benefit of fulfilling one of the three stated purposes of the QMS project (timber yield), especially when so much of the project area would need to be buffered (see map above). While buffering does mitigate some impacts of harvesting, it also disturbs habitat connectivity and is not a great alternative to the USFS dropping this unit all together.

What’s Next?

The USFS plans to release its Environmental Assessment for the QMS project this winter, at which point public comments will be accepted over a 30-day period. Until then, let the USFS know the importance of dropping Unit 166 from their harvest plans by emailing your comments to USFS NEPA Planner and Project Lead, Joanie Schmidgall at joan.schmidgall@usda.gov. Project documents can be found HERE.

*All photos above by Chelsea Stewart-Fusek.

The post FIELD REPORT / BLOG: Quartzville-Middle Santiam Old-Growth on the Chopping Block first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

“Faced with the realities brought forth in our lawsuit, the Forest Service is withdrawing the Mitkof project rather than defend it in court. This is a victory for old growth, wildlife, and subsistence hunters, although we don’t yet know whether the agency will attempt resurrecting the project with future planning,” said  Cordova-based Gabriel Scott of Cascadia Wildlands.

The post Win on the Tongass: Forest Service Withdraws Mitkof Island Old-Growth Timber Sale first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.