Contact:    
Nick Cady, Legal Director, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463          
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity
Quinn Read, Bird Alliance of Oregon

Clearcutting plans halted to protect threatened seabird within former Elliott State Forest parcel

Eugene, OR — Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2022 ruling from the District Court of Oregon that prevents Scott Timber Co. from clearcutting old-growth forest within Oregon’s Elliott State Forest. The court held that the proposed logging of the 355-acre Benson Ridge parcel by the subsidiary of Roseburg Forest Products would harm threatened marbled murrelets in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. The case marks the first time a private timber company has been held to account in court for potential violations of the federal Endangered Species Act in Oregon.

“After a decade of advocacy, the rare old-growth in Benson Ridge is at last protected from private industry chainsaws,” said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. “This ruling is significant for the imperiled marbled murrelet and will hopefully dissuade land managers from logging the little remaining coastal old-growth forest in the state.”

The 82,000-acre Elliott State Forest, located near Coos Bay, has been mired in controversy for over a decade. In 2012, following a decision by the state of Oregon to significantly increase logging levels on the Elliott, Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity and Bird Alliance of Oregon (formerly Portland Audubon) sued the state for illegally logging occupied marbled murrelet habitat on the Elliott and other state forests. After a judge issued a legal injunction, the state settled the suit in 2014, agreeing to drop 26 timber sales and stop logging in occupied murrelet habitat.

Following the settlement, however, the state sold the Benson Ridge parcel and two other tracts, totaling 1,453 acres, even though they contained mature and old-growth forests that were occupied by imperiled marbled murrelets. Prior to the finalization of the sales, the timber purchasers were specifically warned by the three conservation organizations that logging these forests would violate the federal Endangered Species Act. The state finalized the sales regardless.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that the marbled murrelets of Benson Ridge are safe from logging,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This court victory makes it clear that timber companies are no more exempt from ending the extinction crisis that plagues these enduring seabirds than the rest of us.”

The Benson Ridge case was originally filed in August 2016 claiming violations of the federal Endangered Species Act, which strictly prohibits “take” (statutorily defined as including harm, harassment or killing) of threatened species like the marbled murrelet. Unlike any other seabird, murrelets nest on the wide, mossy branches of large, old-growth trees, making a daily trip of up to 35 miles inland to bring fish to their young.

“This entire Elliott State Forest saga demonstrates the incredible cynicism that underpins the treatment of mature and old-growth forests in Oregon,” said Bird Alliance of Oregon conservation director, Quinn Read. “Land managers, both public and private, continue to try to convert these rare old forests into timber plantations. This is not only ecologically devastating but illegal.”

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court holding stating: “…the Benson Tract is occupied and used for nesting by marbled murrelets, the logging operation would eliminate 49 acres of this occupied habitat, and the clearcut would remove nests and prevent returning murrelets from nesting or engaging in other breeding-related activities there…” and noted how the District Court explained  “the timber harvest would directly fragment a continuous stand of occupied forest and, using scientific studies, [demonstrated] how this fragmentation would foreseeably and negatively impact the murrelets’ breeding behaviors.” Opinion at 25.

“This case exemplifies the vital importance of citizen suits in our fight to save the planet. The State of Oregon knew the Marbled Murrelet used this land, but sold it anyways to be clearcut. The Federal Government knew the Marbled Murrelet used the Benson Ridge tract for nesting and reproduction, yet took no action to stop Scott Timber Company’s logging plans. Only through the decades-long effort of these public interest organizations was this land and its nesting Marbled Murrelets protected – in perpetuity – from devastation. Moving forward, timber companies should pay close attention to the existence of Marbled Murrelets on their property, as we certainly will be,” said Daniel Synder of Public Justice.

In addition to winning the Benson Ridge case, the organizations successfully legally challenged the other Elliott privatization efforts with a separate lawsuit.

In recent years, a diversity of stakeholders have successfully worked to “decouple” the Elliott State Forest from the Common School Fund through a series of legislative appropriations and transition it into the Elliott State Research Forest. No longer is there an obligation to clearcut the Elliott to fund public schools in Oregon, and the forest will now be managed with an emphasis on older forest conservation and research.

The conservation organizations were represented by Daniel Kruse of Kruse & Saint Marie LLC, Daniel Snyder of Public Justice, Nick Cady of Cascadia Wildlands and Brian Segee of the Center for Biological Diversity.

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Cascadia Wildlands works on behalf of its over 15,000 members and supporters to defend and restore Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. 

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Bird Alliance of Oregon (formerly Portland Audubon) was founded in 1902 to promote the understanding, enjoyment and protection of native birds, other wildlife and their habitats. Today, it represents over 16,000 members in Oregon.

Founded in January 1982, Public Justice (originally Trial Lawyers for Public Justice) is a nonprofit legal advocacy organization that takes on purveyors of corporate corruption, sexual abusers and harassers, and polluters who ravage the environment.

The post Press Release: Ninth Circuit Upholds Conservationists’ Efforts to Stop Coastal Old-Growth Logging first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Nick Cady, Legal Director, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463 
George Sexton, Conservation Director, KS Wild
Doug Heiken, Conservation and Restoration Coordinator
Meriel Darzen, Staff Attorney, Crag Law Center

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Logging Plan Violates Federal Law

Medford, OR — In response to a challenge brought by conservation organizations, on Friday a federal district court found that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the law with its “Integrated Vegetation Management” (IVM) program, which proposed aggressive logging in forest areas set aside for forest conservation.

The IVM project proposed logging in the Late Successional Reserves (LSR), areas endowed with the purpose of habitat protection. The Court found that the heavier commercial logging prescriptions contemplated in these reserved areas could result in long-term destruction of functioning older forest habitats in violation of BLM’s own management plan, and that “BLM cannot ignore that simply because it wants to increase commercial logging.” Findings at 18, 20.

“The BLM once again put its logging agenda above collaboration, fire resiliency, and wildlife habitat,” said George Sexton, KS Wild Conservation Director, “and the Court held them to account for ignoring science, the law and the public in their rush to log the LSRs.”

The agency attempted to justify the proposed widespread commercial logging by arguing that the logging would increase wildfire resilience. The Court noted that this proposition “received deep public disapproval and skepticism.” Findings at 28. Ultimately, the Court expressed “serious doubt upon the reasonableness” of this conclusion because there is “substantial evidence that BLM’s chosen logging prescriptions would not have the intended effect and would instead exacerbate fire issues.”  Findings at 28-29.  Specifically, the Court explained that relevant scientific studies have found that logging designed to create “open” conditions and the “gap creation” authorized by the BLM could create “highly flammable young stocks interspersed throughout the thinned units,” and could “increase fire hazard in these stands.” Findings at 28-29.

“Consistently, studies have concluded that the gap creation and logging to create ‘open’ conditions proposed here leads to worse fire outcomes on the ground,” said Cascadia Wildlands’ Legal Director Nick Cady. “Maximizing timber volume from our public forests is going to perpetuate wildfire risk for our region, but there is a clear opportunity for collaboration around lighter logging prescriptions that can help restore older forest habitats and reduce fire risk.”

The Court recognized this opportunity and found that “[g]iven the mutual affection for Oregon’s forests shared by all in this action, the Court is confident that dedicated collaboration will result in an effective solution.” Findings at 35. The Court noted that the agency’s plan included non-commercial thinning and prescribed fire, which it described as “proactive and admirable strategies directed across many high-risk areas.” Findings at 35. The conservation organizations that brought the challenge specifically excluded those treatments from the lawsuit and will continue to urge for their widespread implementation by land managers. As the Court noted: “Getting this project right could benefit southwestern Oregon for years to come, while getting it wrong may have devastating consequences across the landscape for fire behavior and wildlife habitat.” Findings at 30.

“We are heartened by the court’s recognition that logging that results in ‘massive canopy reduction’ within protected forests will cause long-term damage to old-growth ecosystems and may increase fire hazard. It’s time for BLM to stop seeing virtually every tree as a problem solved by logging,” said Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild.

While the Biden administration has acknowledged the importance of mature and old-growth forests as a bulwark against the worst impacts of climate change, as well as for their wildlife habitat, recreation and other conservation values, the Bureau of Land Management continues to propose reckless logging in many or our last remaining mature and old-growth forests. This inconsistency in stated goals and implementation needs to end.

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Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, KS Wild and Soda Mountain Wilderness Council were represented by attorneys from Cascadia Wildlands and Crag Law Center.

Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands defends and restores Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. The organization envisions 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’s mission is to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and water as an enduring legacy. Oregon Wild is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year.

KS Wild’s mission is to protect and restore wild nature in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of southwest Oregon and northwest California.

Soda Mountain Wilderness Council is dedicated to protecting and restoring wildlands and the outstanding biodiversity and important biological connectivity where the botanically significant Siskiyou Mountains join the southern Cascade Range in southwest Oregon and northwest California.

Through a unique model of “legal aid for the environment,” Crag Law Center provides free and low-cost legal services to people and organizations who are working on the ground to protect our environment, climate and communities. www.crag.org

The Court’s Findings and Recommendations can be found here. They will be reviewed by Senior U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken.
Plaintiffs’ complaint can be found here.
Photos are located here.

The post Press Release: Court Protects Old-Growth Reserves from Fed’s Logging Scheme first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Eugene, OR — Today, conservation groups challenged a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) logging project that would clearcut mature and old-growth forests and degrade protected wildlife habitat for endangered species. The Big Weekly Elk logging sale, proposed by the BLM’s Coos Bay District, includes logging over 3,500 acres of forest, including areas supposed to be set aside to protect marbled murrelets. 

“This area consists of designated reserves set aside to provide old-forest habitat for imperiled species,” said Nick Cady, Legal Director with Cascadia Wildlands. “But the agency is now proposing to heavily log these areas to meet internally generated timber targets and did not even consider the impacts this logging would have on these species.” 

The BLM’s 2016 Resource Management Plan outlines requirements to protect marbled murrelets and northern spotted owls. Big Weekly Elk ignores these rules, logging and building roads through 55 known marbled murrelet sites and threatening five known northern spotted owl nesting sites. Despite the presence of these vulnerable species, the BLM refused to conduct an analysis of how the logging project would impact murrelets or owls.

“Mature and old-growth forests like those the BLM is proposing to log here are vital, not just for endangered species and clean drinking water, but also for capturing and storing carbon to fight climate change,” said John Persell, Staff Attorney for Oregon Wild. “The BLM needs to do its job, what it is legally required to do, not just blindly log and clearcut our public lands.”

The lawsuit asserts the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to complete a detailed environmental impact statement for Big Weekly Elk, and by failing to take the requisite “hard look” at impacts to endangered species habitat, carbon storage, and a host of other environmental values. The project is surrounded by private lands logging, as well as the BLM’s own Coos Bay Landscape Management Project, which together have already decimated the forest cover in the region, yet the BLM took none of these activities into account in its determination that its logging will have no impact. The areas targeted by the BLM are some of the last intact forest stands in the area.

“This area has already been hammered by private and BLM clearcuts,” said Madeline Cowen, Grassroots and Digital Organizer for Cascadia Wildlands. “Now they’re going after what’s left, and they’re not going to let anything get in the way, including their own rules.”

In proposing to log mature and old-growth forest stands, Big Weekly Elk also contradicts President Biden’s 2022 Executive Order to protect mature and old-growth forests as a natural climate solution. In March, the BLM announced its wide-ranging “Conservation and Landscape Health” rule, with a goal to “promote ecosystem resilience on public lands” and included an acknowledgment of the importance of mature and old-growth trees and forests. The agency concluded a public comment period for proposed rulemaking in July, with hundreds of thousands of people calling on the federal government to protect mature and old-growth trees and forests from logging. 

“Big Weekly Elk includes logging mature and old-growth forests, the very forests that are the most effective tools available for mitigating climate change and promoting biodiversity,” said Victoria Wingell, Forests and Climate Campaigner for Oregon Wild. “They store huge amounts of carbon and keep it out of the atmosphere. As the world experiences record-shattering heat and widespread climate disasters, protecting these forests is critical for preventing the worst impacts of climate change.”

The post Press Release: Conservationists Challenge BLM Clearcut of Endangered Species Habitat first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Meg Townsend, Center for Biological Diversity

Agency to Reevaluate Harm to Coho, Murrelets

PORTLAND, Ore.— In response to a lawsuit Monday by the Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has pulled its authorization of federal disaster relief funding to rebuild Cook Creek Road. The road would have been used for logging in Oregon’s Tillamook State Forest.

“It’s a major victory that FEMA has decided to revoke funding for this disastrous logging road, which should never have been built in the first place,” said Meg Townsend, senior freshwater attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I’m delighted FEMA is taking its duty to protect threatened coho salmon and marbled murrelets seriously. Now we need the Oregon Department of Forestry to reconsider logging in Cook Creek and instead leave it for fish and fishing.”

In a letter sent late Monday, FEMA said it recognized the groups’ concerns and would consider the effects of the Forestry Department’s proposed timber sales, which could not occur if FEMA didn’t provide federal funding to rebuild the road.

In particular, the Forestry Department has two timber sales slated for 2024 that would involve clearcutting nearly 700 acres and constructing more than three miles of new logging roads on steep, landslide prone slopes in the Cook Creek watershed.

“We are relieved the government is going to reevaluate subsidizing Oregon’s attempts to log mature and old-growth forests,” said Nick Cady, legal director of Cascadia Wildlands. “Using disaster relief funds to facilitate logging that increases fire risks for Oregonians is ridiculous.”

Cook Creek Road has been closed since December 2015 when heavy rainfall washed out a section of the road into Cook Creek, halting all logging in the watershed.

The post Press Release: FEMA Pulls Oregon Logging Road Funding In Response to Lawsuit first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Nick Cady, Legal Director, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
George Sexton, Conservation Director, KS Wild
Meriel Darzen, Attorney, Crag Law Center
Doug Heiken, Conservation and Restoration Coordinator, Oregon Wild

Medford, Oregon — Today a coalition of conservation organizations filed a legal complaint challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) “Integrated Vegetation Management” (IVM) program that would aggressively log forest stands located within Late Successional Reserves, areas purportedly set aside for forest conservation. In particular, IVM authorizes so-called “gap creation” and “open seral” logging prescriptions within mature and old-growth forests that are fire-resilient and provide important habitat at-risk wildlife species.

“BLM timber planners can dance around it all they want,” said George Sexton, KS Wild Conservation Director, “but it’s crystal clear that gap creation logging creates clearcuts that remove habitat and increase fire hazard.”

The first commercial IVM logging project called Penn Butte is scheduled to be auctioned off in late May. Penn Butte is located in the Williams Late Successional Reserve and would remove over 400-acres of old-growth habitat through “open seral” logging and another 51 acres through “gap creation” clearcutting.

“The BLM sidestepped its procedural duties and cut the public out of the process when it decided to approve thousands of acres of large tree logging without explaining where the logging will occur and how it would affect existing forests in the short and long-term” stated Crag attorney Meriel Darzen. “This is particularly egregious where these particular forests were set aside by the agency itself as reserve lands with the goal of protecting habitat.”

The US Fish and Wildlife Service Biological Opinion for Penn Butte concluded that the proposed old-growth logging is “likely to adversely affect” spotted owls and their designated critical habitat.

“The forests targeted for removal in Penn Butte are resilient, healthy, and most important they are designated as reserves for conservation, not timber supply,” said Doug Heiken, Conservation and Restoration Coordinator for Oregon Wild. “If we want to store carbon and provide habitat this is the place for careful conservation, not aggressive logging.”

“If the BLM is interested in real fire-focused restoration, we would be fully supportive,” stated Cascadia Wildlands Legal Director Nick Cady, “but aggressively logging wildlife habitat in the Late Successional Reserves that will increase fire hazard for the surrounding community is ridiculous. It demonstrates that this agency does not care what this community has been through and is only concerned with producing timber volume.”

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The post Press Release: Legal Challenge to BLM’s Late Successional Reserve Logging Scheme first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contact:
Madeline Cowen, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Arran Robertson, Oregon Wild
Brenna Bell, 350 PDX

Logging of “climate forests” across the US continues despite Biden executive order

Portland, OR — Today, forest and climate activists gathered at Terry Schrunk Plaza across from the Forest Service Region 6 offices in support of stronger protections for mature and old-growth forests.

The rally was one of several across the country in response to President Biden’s Earth Day executive order calling on federal agencies to protect public land forests as a natural solution to capturing and storing the carbon pollution that is driving climate change.

“Despite President Biden’s executive order to protect mature and old-growth forests, federal agencies like the US Forest Service are cutting them at alarming rates,” said Victoria Wingell, Oregon Wild’s Forests and Climate Campaigner. “We need lasting, durable protections that will keep our most important trees and forests safe and fighting climate change.”

In Oregon, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are proceeding with numerous logging sales targeting mature and old-growth forests.

“Old forests of the Northwest are our lungs and our water faucet,” said Casey Kulla, a Yamhill County Commissioner and speaker at the rally. “For both rural and city folks, they are essential to our survival and they are essential to our joy. It is time to heed President Biden’s call to protect these old forests.”

In the leadup to the rally, activists projected images of endangered wildlife threatened by mature and old-growth logging sales in Oregon across the World Trade Center building just blocks away from the Forest Service Region 6 offices. Spotted owls and Coho salmon have all had their habitats degraded by federal and private logging in Oregon and across the Pacific Northwest. The projections also featured a message to President Biden: these forests are worth more standing.

Mark Gamba, mayor of Milwaukie and Representative-elect to the Oregon State House, also spoke at the event: “Given that we have logged all but 3% of old growth on this continent, and given that old-growth sequesters and draws down far more carbon than young trees, it is absolutely critical that we protect the old growth that remains and also work to expand it by conserving mature trees.”

The rally coincided with the release of a new report, America’s Vanishing Forests, from the national Climate Forests Coalition that identified logging projects across the country threatening mature and old-growth forests. Logging sales in Oregon highlighted in this report are the Ragged Ruby project in the Malheur National Forest and two BLM projects: Evans Creek and 42 Divide. A previous “Worth More Standing” report included the Flat Country logging sale in the Willamette National Forest, and the Poor Windy and IVM logging projects on Oregon BLM lands.

“After spending twenty-five years advocating for ecological management of National Forests, it has become clear to me that we can’t keep fighting timber sale by timber sale,” said Brenna Bell, Forest Climate Manager for 350 PDX. “So long as federal lands are expected to ‘get out the cut’, saving a forest in one place just leads to losing it in another. Now, with a changing climate and changing culture, we need national, comprehensive protection of federal mature and old-growth forests once and for all.”

Altogether, the Climate Forest Coalition has identified 22 projects totaling nearly 370,000 acres of mature and old-growth forests and trees that the Biden administration has on the chopping block.

A federal comment process generated over 130,000 comments from around the country for a strong rule from the Biden administration that protects these “climate forests” from corporate logging.

“If the Biden administration is serious about fighting the climate crisis, forests need to be permanently protected immediately,” said Madeline Cowen, Grassroots Organizer with Cascadia Wildlands. “Threatened ecosystems like those in the Forest Service’s Flat Country project and in the Bureau of Land Management’s 42 Divide project are actively storing vast amounts of carbon, providing precious habitat for imperiled species, and ensuring communities have clean drinking water and recreational opportunities. Cutting them down spells game over. Forests are some of the best, and last, defenses we have.”

Organizers of the rally emphasized the value of mature and old-growth forests, not only for fighting climate change, but for protecting clean drinking water and providing fish and wildlife habitat.

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The post Press Release: Protestors Call Out Biden’s Mature and Old-Growth Logging Sales at Portland Forest Service Office first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

CONTACTS:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
George Sexton, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center
Susan Jane Brown, Western Environmental Law Center
Parker Jones, Law Offices of Charlie Tebbutt

Conservation Groups Challenge North Umpqua Post-Fire Logging Plan

Large Timber Sales Threaten Forest Recovery, River Health

Eugene, OR – Today, Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, and the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center (KS Wild) filed suit challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Archie Creek post-fire logging plans. The agency plans to log mature and old-growth stands on public land along the North Umpqua River, including northern spotted owl habitat, protected streamside forests, and within old-growth reserves and Wild & Scenic River corridors in violation of environmental rules and the agency’s own management plans.
 
“BLM rushed meaningful analysis of the impacts of this project in order to get out the cut,” said Susan Jane Brown, staff attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, which represents the groups. “When the agency blindly pursues logging at the expense of wildlife, clean water, old-growth forests, and carbon storage, it betrays their role as a steward of public lands.”
 
Despite the agency’s acknowledgement of the widespread negative impacts of post-fire logging, BLM refused to consider and analyze numerous public values that will be adversely affected by the Archie Creek project including landslide risk, the North Umpqua River, future increased fire risk and severity, recreation, and imperiled fish species. The agency’s decision only analyzed two issues, one of which was the amount of timber volume it would generate. 
 
“This overzealous timber sale will involve logging and road construction that will impact key tributaries of the North Umpqua that provide salmon, clean drinking water, and year-round recreation,” said Doug Heiken, Conservation and Restoration Coordinator for Oregon Wild. “Claims that there will be no impact effects from clearcutting recently burned forests are simply untrue and unjustifiable.”
 
The agency’s resource management plan is premised on logging approximately 2,000 acres of recently burned forest throughout the entire western Oregon region over a 50-year period. The BLM is now proposing over five times that level of post-fire logging along the North Umpqua River alone. This scale of logging, especially in fragile post-fire forests, will result in adverse environmental consequences for decades to come. BLM’s proposed logging would occur in conjunction with logging on adjacent private lands and lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service, underscoring the need for environmental analysis that addresses the cumulative impacts of all logging in the area regardless of land ownership.
 
“BLM is using the fire as an excuse to throw out the rulebook and harm wildlife, recreation, and water quality,” said George Sexton, Conservation Director for KS Wild. “Logging to meet arbitrary timber targets is not an appropriate reason to destroy public lands that belong to everyone.”
 
The organizations are represented by attorneys at Western Environmental Law Center, the Law Offices of Charlie Tebbutt, and Cascadia Wildlands.

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The post Press Release: Lawsuit filed challenging the BLM’s Archie Creek post-fire logging plans first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

The post Field Checking the Quartz Timber Sale first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

By Nick Cady, Legal Director

The post Blog: Lawyers, Guns and Money first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

SALEM, Ore. — After a lawsuit by conservation groups, the State of Oregon has suspended logging of 914 acres of old-growth forest on the Elliott State Forest that is habitat for the threatened marbled murrelet. Previously, ten timber sales were suspended in response to the lawsuit filed in July by Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Audubon Society of Portland. The suit asserts that the state is harming the rare seabird by logging its nesting habitat in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

“The state of Oregon has been playing fast and loose with the law for years in the way it claims to ‘protect’ the imperiled marbled murrelet,” said Francis Eatherington, conservation director of Cascadia Wildlands. “The decision to further defer hundreds of acres of clearcuts is one that we welcome and provides interim relief for the murrelet.”

Plaintiffs discovered the logging deferral announcement in an Oregon Department of Forestry memo, dated Sept. 19, 2012, that was just recently posted to the Department’s website. The memo suggests that the State will defer 15 additional timber sales until the lawsuit currently pending in U.S. District Court is resolved, and that the State will work to identify other logging projects that are free of the contested issues in the case. Plaintiffs have long advocated the state focus its timber operations on young plantation forests in need of restoration rather than older forests that are critical to the survival of a host of endangered species, including marbled murrelets.

“Logging on state forests cannot be done at the expense of the survival of the marbled murrelet or any other animals that depend on old forests for their survival,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The last remaining old forests in Oregon are precious and need to be protected not just for the marbled murrelet, but for future generations.”

The most recent status review of the murrelet by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found the birds have been declining by about four percent per year and that this decline relates to continued loss of habitat, primarily on state and private lands.

The State of Oregon recently abandoned its decade-long attempt to develop habitat conservation plans (HCPs) for the Elliott, as well as the Clatsop and Tillamook State Forests, that would have given it a federal permit for limited impacts to marbled murrelets in exchange for habitat protection measures designed to enhance the bird’s conservation. Rather than improving habitat protections, the state walked away from the HCP process altogether and instead ramped up logging on all three forests. The lawsuit seeks to force the State to halt logging practices that are harmful to murrelets until it develops a plan that will protect murrelets and the mature forests on which the birds and other species depend.

“It is time for the State to return to the table and negotiate a balanced plan for each of the state forests that will provide adequate protection for the murrelet, allow for responsible and sustainable logging, and ensure that the State meets the requirements of the Endangered Species Act,” said Bob Sallinger, conservation director for the Audubon Society of Portland.

The conservation organizations are represented by outside counsel Daniel Kruse of Eugene, Tanya Sanerib and Chris Winter of the Crag Law Center, Nick Cady of Cascadia Wildlands, Scott Jerger of Field Jerger LLP, and Susan Jane Brown of the Western Environmental Law Center.

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The post Press Release: Oregon Suspends Clearcutting in the Elliott State Forest first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.