September 26, 2012 — Three conservation organizations filed a legal challenge today to halt the controversial Rickard Creek timber sale on Salem Bureau of Land Management lands southwest of Corvallis, Oregon. Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity and Benton Forest Coalition assert the BLM failed to protect habitat for the threatened red tree vole in violation of the Northwest Forest Plan and National Forest Management Act. The timber sale would clearcut 92 acres and thin 19 acres of mature forests in the Marys River watershed.
Press Release: Washington State Resumes Hunt for Wolves With Aim to Destroy Wedge Pack
September 5, 2012 — Following two depredations last week, the state of Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife ended its brief wolf-hunting reprieve and is again gunning to kill up to four wolves in the Wedge pack, with the aim of potentially breaking up the pack.
Press Release: State of Oregon Suspends 10 State Forest Timber Sales in Marbled Murrelet Habitat
July 2, 2012 — The State of Oregon has suspended operations on 10 timber sales in marbled murrelet habitat one month after Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Audubon Society of Portland filed a lawsuit alleging the state’s logging practices in the Tillamook, Clatsop, and Elliott State Forests are illegally “taking” the imperiled seabird in violation of the Endangered Species Act. To prevent additional murrelet habitat from being lost while the case works its way through the court system, the conservation groups filed an injunction request in federal court to halt sales and logging in the occupied murrelet habitat pending the outcome of the lawsuit.