FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 21, 2026 

Roseburg, Oregon — Today, a coalition of conservation organizations filed suit challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) “42 Divide Forest Management Plan” (42 Divide) near Camas Valley, Oregon. The agency proposes to aggressively log thousands of acres of diverse forest stands, even though more than half the land is in reserves set aside for habitat conservation. The area targeted for logging covers nearly 7,000 acres of public lands within the checkerboard of public and private lands in Douglas County, already heavily impacted by private industrial clearcuts. 

The forests and waterways within the project area are home to federally protected northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, Oregon Coast coho salmon, and BLM designated sensitive species western pond turtles. The targeted area contains healthy, diverse stands of mature forest, including Douglas fir, cedar and madrone, and is home to a great diversity of plant, animal, and fungal life. Not only will the project negatively impact these species, the BLM itself recognizes that it will increase fire risk in the area by creating hundreds of tons of post-logging slash.

Heavy thinning and clearcutting will make these forests more vulnerable to wildfire. Logging removes large trees with thick bark and protective forest canopies. This tends to make the forest hotter, drier, and windier, drying out fuels and driving more extreme fire behavior. Logging also stimulates the growth of hazardous surface and ladder fuels. Despite community concerns, BLM wants to conduct logging that makes wildfire risk and hazard worse for surrounding communities for decades. 

“Our organizations are challenging 42 Divide out of great concern that it does not advance BLM’s purported purposes of restoration and resilience, instead threatening imperiled wildlife, increasing fire hazard, and decreasing these forests’ resilience to disturbance,” said Peter Jensen, staff attorney with Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands. “The fish and wildlife within the area, as well as the communities in and around these public lands, are put at greater risk by BLM’s timber-centric agenda and disregard for ecosystem needs, public outcry, and federal environmental law.”

The lawsuit alleges the project violates federal law and the agency’s own regulations by failing to protect older forest stands in late successional reserves (LSRs). Late successional reserves are designed to protect remaining older, structurally complex forest–the highest value spotted owl nesting and roosting habitat, and to promote forests maturing into the types of habitat essential to spotted owls where the forest does not currently function as such. BLM’s analysis and ultimate conclusion that this project would not significantly affect the environment failed to address key issues, omitted necessary analysis of critical resource issues and wildlife management concerns, and ultimately left more questions than answers and more controversy than collaboration with the public. 

”BLM continues to wrap large logging projects targeting mature and old-growth forests in a veneer of ‘restoration’ and “resilience”, despite the research showing the logging would negatively impact protected wildlife and increase wildfire risk, and despite the clear legal mandate to protect these forests,” said Brenna Bell, senior staff attorney, Crag Law Center. “It should not require legal action to get this federal agency to follow its own management plan and manage public lands to benefit more than just the timber industry.”

BLM first proposed the 42 Divide in November 2021, subsequently issuing draft planning documents and pausing the project a few times, most recently for further study and endangered species analysis before ultimately issuing the December 2025 decision. The conservation organizations, along with local community members, engaged at every public comment opportunity, voicing their concerns. To the agency’s credit, BLM deferred over 400 acres of logging in occupied northern spotted owl habitat, but myriad other concerns raised by the plaintiffs and community members remained unresolved. 

“In such a diverse and important ecosystem, home to sensitive and imperiled wildlife species, BLM must do better,” said Janice Reid of Umpqua Watersheds. “The agency must conserve and protect imperiled wildlife species and their habitats, and demonstrate compliance with federal environmental laws before authorizing such large-scale industrial forestry practices on public lands.” 

“The BLM continues to shirk its obligations to the public and the law in its pursuit of large commercial logging projects,” said John Persell with Oregon Wild. “Aggressive logging in these protected areas not only endangers fish and wildlife, but it also adds to the cumulative destruction of the landscape already ravaged by the surrounding private-land clearcuts. Public lands are supposed to be a refuge from this kind of destruction, not an extension of it.”

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

The post Conservation Groups Challenge Feds’ Illegal 42 Divide Logging Plan in Western Oregon first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which governs the environmental review process for public land management decisions and mandates public input in the review process, has been a repeat target for the administration. On June 30th, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released an interim final rule changing NEPA implementation procedures for all of its agencies, including the Forest Service. These regulations come in response to the administration’s rescission of the Council of Environmental Quality’s NEPA regulations earlier this year (spurred by EO 14154, Unleashing American Energy) which prompted each agency to craft its own NEPA regulations without meaningful public or Tribal input during the development of the rule. 

Sign our petition below to tell the US Department of Agriculture — Don’t Shut the Public Out of Public Lands.

The USDA NEPA implementation regulations strip away mechanisms for public input. The implementation regulations no longer require scoping, an early and essential process where an agency provides the public with notice of a potential project and identifies the potential environmental impacts. The regulations also no longer require public comment periods during the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) stages. The agency will no longer be required to provide a Schedule of Proposed Actions to the public. These changes, which took effect July 3rd, 2025 with the interim final rule’s publication in the Federal Register, impact all 193 million acres of land that the Forest Service manages, including Mt. Hood, Willamette, Umpqua, Siuslaw, and Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forests.

SIGN THE PETITION BELOW TO TELL TRUMP — PUBLIC INPUT FOR PUBLIC LANDS!

The post Forests Over Fascists—Don’t Shut the Public Out of Public Lands. first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

For immediate release: May 28, 2025 

Contact:

Josh Laughlin, Executive Director, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463

Today, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced it has issued a required permit to the Oregon Department of State Lands in order for the recently created Elliott State Research Forest to become operational. Approval ensures Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed terrestrial wildlife found on the 83,000-acre public forest located northeast of Coos Bay are adequately protected for the next 80 years through a Habitat Conservation Plan. A similar required permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service covering ESA-listed salmon on the forest has yet to be issued.  

After over six years of advocacy and negotiation to establish the Elliott State Research Forest, conservationists welcome this next step towards implementation.  

“There are hard-fought protection measures built into the Elliott’s Habitat Conservation Plan to ensure critically imperiled species, like the marbled murrelet and northern spotted owl, are given the necessary safeguards to persist into the future,” says Josh Laughlin, Executive Director of Cascadia Wildlands. “The issuance of the permit today is one of the final steps toward this plan becoming a reality.” 

The Habitat Conservation Plan establishes a 34,000-acre protected area on the Elliott’s west side, where remining older forests will be protected and young, plantation forests will be restored to help create more complex forest structure in the future to benefit imperiled species. Smaller protected areas are strategically designated throughout the rest of the forest as well.  

Public controversy around cutting the Elliott’s remining mature and old-growth forests and short-sighted privatization efforts marred this outstanding public forest for decades. The public and conservation organizations have repeatedly pushed back against these schemes, and a new paradigm for the forest has emerged in recent years. 

“Not long ago, Oregonians successfully fought off a privatization scheme that would have resulted in the forest being clearcut and the public being locked out,” says Laughlin. “Now, we have an enduring plan in place that keeps the forest in public ownership and embraces the conservation values that Oregonians hold closely.” 

Under the newly created Elliott State Research Forest’s 80-year plan, logging will primarily be focused in young plantations forests, and a major emphasis will be placed on salmon and wildlife habitat protection, cutting-edge forest and watershed research, Tribal knowledge and involvement, recreation, education, and carbon storage to help blunt the climate crisis. 

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Additional background:  

Cascadia Wildlands and partners have successfully confronted efforts in the past to privatize the Elliott, including securing an Oregon Supreme Court victory in 2019 halting the sale of the 788-acre East Hakki Ridge parcel to the timber industry. This privatization scheme was in direct response to a successful 2012 lawsuit brought by Cascadia Wildlands and legal partners. That case halted dozens of old-growth timber sales on the Elliott, Clatsop and Tillamook state forests, where threatened marbled murrelets were nesting. 

Additionally, the State Land Board, which oversees the Elliott, advanced a plan to privatize the entire forest beginning in 2015, but that decision was reversed in 2017 after significant public opposition. Instead, the forest was maintained in public ownership after the Oregon legislature appropriated $221 million to buy-out the forest’s obligation to the Common School Fund. 

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. www.cascwild.org

The post US Fish and Wildlife Service Issues Permit to Advance Oregon’s Elliott State Research Forest  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   

May 21, 2025

Eugene, Ore.— Conservation groups intervened today in a lawsuit brought by the timber industry and counties seeking to strip northern spotted owls of protections for their critical habitat across millions of acres of forests in California, Oregon and Washington.  

The industry lawsuit attempts to reinstate a critical habitat rollback issued in the final weeks of the first Trump administration that removed nearly 3.5 million acres from the 9.6 million acres that were protected for spotted owls in 2012.  

“The forests these precious owls depend on also provide all of us with benefits like clean water, recreation, jobs and climate resiliency,” said Chelsea Stewart-Fusek, an endangered species attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Given Trump’s relentless assaults on our most cherished wildlife and public lands, it’s no surprise that corporate timber interests are resurrecting their attacks on northern spotted owls and the places they live in the name of short-term profit.”  

The northern spotted owl first gained critical habitat protection in 1992, and those were adjusted in 2012 under the Obama administration. That rule was challenged in court by the timber industry, resulting in a settlement and a January 2021 designation excluding 3.5 million acres from critical habitat protection, nearly all on public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.  

Just 10 months later, the Biden administration rescinded the final designation and instead finalized a proposed rule that excluded 204,294 acres instead of 3.5 million acres. That Biden administration rule is being challenged by the timber industry’s current lawsuit, which is seeking to reinstate the expanded Trump administration revision.   

“This latest attempt by the timber industry to remove protections for northern spotted owls is a cynical move that perpetuates not only the biodiversity and extinction crises, but also the pendulum swing regarding management of the owl’s habitat,” said Susan Jane Brown, attorney with Silvix Resources that represents some of the intervenors. “Rather than accept that the best available science requires the protection of millions of acres of spotted owl habitat to prevent the extinction and foster the recovery of the owl, industry’s lawsuit seeks to unnecessarily stoke controversy.” 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protected the northern spotted owl, a bird found only in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1990. In 2020, because of continued loss of the old forests they need to live and competition with the invasive barred owl, the Service found northern spotted owls should now be classified as endangered but has yet to provide stronger protections for the species. 

“This is a tired story: the timber industry attempting to game the legal system in order to expand logging on our public lands,” said Tom Wheeler, executive director of the Environmental Protection Information Center. “Unfortunately for them, they have to come through us first. We have stood up for the northern spotted owls and science for decades and we aren’t backing down.” 

Additional quotes: 

“The lawyers for Big Timber are cherry-picking a courthouse across the country to attack old-growth spotted owl habitat in our neck of the woods,” said George Sexton, conservation director for Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center. “So we’re intervening to stand up for science and our forests.” 

“Drastically reducing spotted owl habitat protections is not only antithetical to the best science we have for allowing the imperiled species to recover, but puts at risk all the other benefits that protecting these public lands provide to Oregonians, the very people that these lands are supposed to be managed for,” says Nick Cady with Cascadia Wildlands. “Aggressive logging increases wildfire risk, threatens drinking water sources, recreation opportunities, and much more all for the benefit of corporate timber barons.” 

“With northern spotted owl population numbers in precipitous decline, the timber industry seeks to remove protections from a full third — 3.5 million acres — of the species’ critical habitat,” said David Woodsmall, attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “This is a choice by the industry to drive the northern spotted owl to extinction for private profit, antithetical to the American values of conservation embodied in our laws. Western Environmental Law Center has fought for northern spotted owl recovery for decades, and we will use the power of the law to thwart any action that threatens the survival of this iconic species.” 

“The logging industry wants to frame this lawsuit as just about the northern spotted owl, but what’s really at stake are our oldest, most resilient forests, forests that also provide cold, clean rivers for salmon, drinking water for communities and cherished places for countless people,” said John Persell, staff attorney for Oregon Wild. “Trump administration officials have made it clear they view these lands as little more than a source of profit. It’s up to all of us to stand up — for owls, salmon, clean water and carbon-storing forests — and say no.” 

“With less than 3,000 spotted owls left and a population that is declining precipitously, this challenge is a slap in the face to conservation and the survival of this species. Any reduction in acreage of critical habitat could be this species’ death knell,” said Joe Liebezeit, statewide conservation director for Bird Alliance of Oregon. 

“Everything needs a home to survive,” said Dave Werntz, science and conservation director at Conservation Northwest. “The northern spotted owl is no exception.” 

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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. www.cascwild.org

The post Legal Intervention Defends Northern Spotted Owl Habitat  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Eugene, OR — Conservation groups secured a victory as a federal court rejected the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) controversial Siuslaw HLB (“Harvest Land Base”) Project. The court held the agency’s proposed multi-decadal and aggressive logging plan near several communities west of Eugene, violated critical environmental review requirements.

Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild, with attorneys at Crag Law Center, brought suit arguing that the agency ignored the project’s potential impacts on soils, drinking water, invasive weeds, and threatened wildlife. The organizations also raised concerns about the cumulative effects of the Siuslaw HLB Project and the overlapping N126 Project, another Bureau of Land Management logging proposal a different judge ruled unlawful in late March. Federal law requires the agency to weigh the negative effects of logging  against any claimed benefits from timber production — a step the Bureau of Land Management neglected.

“The Bureau of Land Management routinely disregards the serious risks that many of their logging projects impose,” said Nick Cady with Cascadia Wildlands. “We lose valuable, rare ecosystems and with it, wildfire resilience and drinking water quality, every time these mature forests are irresponsibly logged.” 

The Court ruled in favor of the conservation groups, finding that the Bureau of Land Management did not take the legally required “hard look” at the environmental impacts. Further, in his Opinion, Judge Kasubhai concluded that “This is not a case where the Court was unable to determine whether there may be significant effects. Rather, the Court has explicitly found [] that substantial questions exist over whether the Siuslaw Plan may have significant impacts. Under the clear rule set forth in the case law cited above, an EIS [environmental impact statement] must be prepared in light of that finding.”Accordingly, BLM’s choice not to take a hard look at the environmental consequences of its decision and prepare an environmental impact statement violated federal law.

“The Judge offered a strong rebuke of the agency’s shell game analysis, wherein the BLM refused to analyze impacts to key issues like sensitive soils, imperiled species, and invasive species, claiming that such impacts were either already addressed or would be in the future. But in truth, the agency’s approach meant that these critical issues would never be addressed in the manner that the law requires,” said Oliver Stiefel, Senior Staff Attorney Crag Law Center.

The Siuslaw HLB Project sought to log 13,225 acres of public forests in the Coast Range foothills. The Bureau of Land Management’s own planning documents acknowledged that the project would increase spread of invasive weeds, decrease slope stability and destroy soil health, and risked serious harm to numerous protected species (special status, bureau sensitive, or endangered), decrease fire resilience, and contaminate and degrade drinking water contamination. Notwithstanding, the agency dismissed these risks as insignificant.

“Whether it’s due to poor analysis or attempts to log old-growth trees for profit, the courts continue to reject the BLM’s unlawful logging projects,” said John Persell of Oregon Wild. “Clearcutting public lands, destroying wildlife habitat, endangering local communities — this is exactly the type of logging President Trump and his allies are now pushing on a larger scale. It’s not legal, it’s not what the public wants, and we’re going to keep fighting it.” 

Local residents have also voiced strong opposition, citing risks such as drinking water contamination, increased wildfire hazards, soil erosion, invasive species introduction and the destruction of wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities. The agency was unfazed by these concerns. It is encouraging to see federal courts in Oregon recognizing the problems associated with poor environmental analysis and serious risks those shortfalls pose to our forests.

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

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 Court Rejects Coast Range Clearcutting Project first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 22, 2025

Roseburg, OR — Today, Earth Day April 22nd, 2025 activists rallied in opposition to a Bureau of Land Management plan to log old-growth forests on federally-managed public lands in the Umpqua River watershed. Conservation groups filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management in September 2024 over the controversial  Blue and Gold logging project. The non-violent rally, organized by Cascadia Wildlands and Umpqua Watersheds, coincides with an auction of several of the logging units within the project dubbed the Yellow Panther Sale. The protest is focused on the project as a whole. 

Originally proposed under the Biden administration, the Blue and Gold project targets thousands of acres of the last remaining old-growth forest in the region. The project is in an area that is ecologically significant for the imperilled spotted owl and marbled murrelet. Science shows old-growth forests are more resilient to wildfire, while logging increases wildfire risk for decades. Conservationists and community members opposed the project then, as they do under the Trump administration. 

“Today, our community is telling the federal government that we will not tolerate illegal old-growth logging on public lands,” said Madeline Cowen, Grassroots Organizer for Cascadia Wildlands. “Logging old-growth and mature forests increases risks to communities — everyone should be angry about this project.” 

The Trump administration has shown their support for industrial logging projects, issuing executive orders to increase industrial logging on federal lands. Researchers have sounded the alarm pointing to science showing that aggressive logging in backcountry forests and old-growth forests increases wildfire risk.

Certain areas of the Blue and Gold Project fall under this category, with well-spaced, age-varied trees throughout the project. A former Bureau of Land Management contract surveyor who worked within the project concluded that trees in and around the project likely reach and exceed 1000 years in age. Cascadia Wildlands volunteers who surveyed the area recorded similar findings. This differs from what the agency claims is present in the project, with the Environmental Assessment, stating that the trees “range from 40 to 140 years old.”The EA found “no significant impact,” a finding that conservation groups are challenging. 

The project has some of the last remaining unlogged, carbon-storing older forests in the region.The Bureau of Land Management plans to aggressively log and build roads in old-growth habitat essential to imperiled species and fire resilience. Agency road building plans are one of the loopholes used to log old-growth trees that would otherwise be illegal to remove in most circumstances. 

“We are protesting because this project targets old-growth forests in Douglas County,” said Francis Etherington, a longtime forest advocate and local resident. “Motivated by arbitrary timber targets, the government is putting our communities, clean drinking water and wildlife habitat at greater risk.”

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More information about the Blue and Gold project can be found in ProPublica’s investigative piece, Despite Biden’s Promise to Protect Old Forests, His Administration Keeps Approving Plans to Cut Them Down.

PHOTOS: to be updated throughout the day and evening of April 22, 2025 HERE. 

PHOTOS of threatened forests within the Blue and Gold project area from summer and fall of 2024. 

The post Federal Land Agency Auctions Old-Growth Forest on Earth Day, Protesters Rally in Roseburg to Oppose the Project first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2025

Contact:
Nick Cady, Legal Director, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Sangye Ince-Johannsen, Attorney, Western Environmental Law Center

Eugene, OR — In response to a challenge brought by Cascadia Wildlands and the Western Environmental Law Center, an Oregon federal district court on Monday held that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the law in authorizing the N126 Late Successional Reserve Landscape Plan Project. The parties have 30 days to agree on a remedy. 

The project, one of the largest Oregon public land logging proposals in decades, was slated to occur primarily in late successional reserves—areas intended for habitat protection and development for federally protected species. In May 2022, Cascadia Wildlands challenged the BLM for failing to complete an environmental impact statement for the massive project. The agency failed to consider impacts to species listed under the Endangered Species Act, dismissed dozens of environmental issues from consideration, and failed entirely to consider cumulative impacts of associated contemporaneous, overlapping and adjacent projects in the area.

“This victory will allow us to bring this project back in line with public values, like protecting mature and old-growth forests in the reserves,” said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. “It is disappointing that it takes these lengthy court cases to force the agency to actually consider the effects of all this proposed logging aside from timber volume, but the BLM has shown no desire to compromise absent a federal court order.”

Following exhaustive public comments pointed out problems with the proposed logging, extensive field checking and on-the-ground verification, and years of litigation, the court ruled that the heavy logging and extensive road building and renovation associated with this project involved significant and largely unanalyzed impacts in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. Specifically, “BLM failed to provide a reasonably thorough discussion of the significant aspects of the effect of new road construction, repair, and haul routes; sediment delivery; and cumulative impacts” of adjacent and overlapping projects.

“This is one of the largest federally approved logging project on public land in Oregon in decades, and as the court rightly found, many of the Bureau of Land Management’s ‘findings of no significant impact’ don’t hold up under scrutiny,” said Sangye Ince-Johannsen, attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “This is a hard-fought victory, and the final phase still ahead will be decisive as we work to ensure continued protection for the rare and threatened wildlife that call the N126 project area home.”

“This is not just a legal victory, but also a testament to the longstanding community opposition and organizing against the BLM’s reckless logging,” said Madeline Cowen, grassroots organizer at Cascadia Wildlands. “In the face of a full-on assault against our bedrock environmental policies by the Trump administration, it is an important reminder that when we fight back, we win.”

Cascadia Wildlands is represented by attorneys from Cascadia Wildlands and the Western Environmental Law Center in this matter.

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. www.cascwild.org

The Western Environmental Law Center uses the power of the law to foster thriving, resilient western lands, waters, wildlife, and communities in the face of a changing climate. As a public interest law firm, WELC does not charge clients and partners for services but relies instead on charitable gifts from individuals, families, and foundations to accomplish its mission. https://westernlaw.org/

The Court’s Opinion and Order can be found here.

Plaintiffs’ complaint can be found here.

The post Court: N126, One of the Largest Oregon Logging Projects in Decades, Needs More Detailed Study to Safeguard Environment, Imperiled Species first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

For Immediate Release

April 1, 2025

Medford, OR — On March 31, 2025, Federal District Court Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) “Integrated Vegetation Management” (IVM) logging program illegally authorized the destruction of old-growth forest stands located within Late Successional Reserves, areas purportedly set aside for forest conservation. In particular, the court pointed out that “gap creation” and “open seral” logging prescriptions within the Late Successional Reserves would have increased fire hazard while removing old-growth forest habitat.

Conservation groups from across Oregon challenged the IVM logging project with the goal of getting BLM forest managers to focus on fuels reduction and fire resiliency instead of logging old-growth forests to meet artificial timber targets.

“This ruling confirms that Late Successional Reserves are exactly what their name says,” said George Sexton, KS Wild Conservation Director. “These fire-resilient old-growth forest stands capture carbon while providing some of the best wildlife habitat left in southern Oregon.”

The first commercial IVM timber sales called Penn Butte and Late Mungers were located in the Williams Late Successional Reserve and would have removed over 400-acres of old-growth habitat through “open seral” logging and another 51 acres through “gap creation” clearcutting.

“Reckless timber sales like this are exactly why we need strong public oversight,” said John Persell, Staff Attorney for Oregon Wild. “Trump’s executive order to ramp up logging pushes for more destructive projects like this solely to benefit the timber industry, but the forests at Penn Butte and Late Mungers should be protected for their role in storing carbon and providing key habitat, not sacrificed for corporate profit.”

Through the IVM timber scheme BLM timber planners hoped to avoid site-specific analysis and public input while removing old-growth forest habitat from the Late Successional Reserves, increasing fire hazard in the logged forest stands.

“If the BLM is interested in real fire-focused restoration, we would be fully supportive,” said Cascadia Wildlands Legal Director Nick Cady, “but that is not what the IVM logging program is. Aggressively logging wildlife habitat in the Late Successional Reserves will increase fire hazard for the surrounding communities. It demonstrates that this agency is only concerned with producing timber volume.”

The successful legal challenge was argued by Meriel Darzen of the Crag Law Center on behalf of KS Wild, Oregon Wild, Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, and Cascadia Wildlands. In the shadow of the Trump Administration anti-environmental Executive Orders, Crag remains committed to the rule of law.

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. www.cascwild.org

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 protects and promotes wilderness in the Soda Mountain/Pilor Rock area.

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 post Illegal IVM Late Successional Reserve Logging Scheme Struck Down first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Beavers are ecosystem engineers, and one of our best natural climate solutions. The Beavers and Water Quality Bill would close beaver hunting and trapping in waterways on public lands that the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) classifies as ‘impaired.’ Beaver activities, including canal-digging, dam-building, and pond-filling can help slow water flow, restore impacted water tables and underground aquifers, create natural wetlands that filter toxins, expand riparian habitats for wildlife including sensitive bird species, and incorporate woody debris in streams for imperiled salmon. In other words, beavers improve water quality and restore habitat. 

Worryingly, over 100,000 miles of Oregon’s waterways are in poor health — impaired by high temperatures, sedimentation or toxins, sometimes all three. DEQ is tasked with restoring these waterways, but doing so requires significant resources to design and implement plans to reduce the impairment. Fortunately, beavers can help, and they’re free!

The post Tell the Oregon Senate to Pass Beaver and Water Quality Bill HB 3932  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Eugene, OR — Today, conservation organizations filed suit against the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) alleging ongoing violations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). For over sixteen years, the public utility has been out of legal compliance with federal requirements to provide proper fish passage for ESA-listed Chinook salmon and bull trout at the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project and Trail Bridge Dam on the famed McKenzie River. 

EWEB’s failure to provide adequate fish passage has resulted in killing and injuring Chinook salmon and bull trout as the fish try to migrate up and downriver, a violation of the ESA’s prohibition on “take” — including harming, harassing, wounding, and killing— of listed species. EWEB’s inaction also prevents the fish from accessing important spawning, rearing, and feeding areas. 

“For nearly two decades, Upper Willamette River Chinook salmon and bull trout have paid the price for EWEB’s chronic non-compliance,” said Peter Jensen, an attorney with Cascadia Wildlands. “Accountability for the serious harm to protected fish species is needed to correct course and ensure the health of the river and persistence of these iconic fish species.”

EWEB’s dam license at the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project (issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC) is conditioned on the construction of fish passage at Trail Bridge Dam. EWEB initially agreed to install a fish ladder at the dam, but later scrapped this plan for an inferior proposal for a trap-and-haul system based on an updated economic analysis. The National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service consented to the less effective plan largely because EWEB promised to build that facility quickly. EWEB then missed multiple deadlines and has yet to even break ground on a trap-and-haul facility that was required to be completed in 2022. Moreover, EWEB has publicly admitted that its temporary mitigation efforts have either entirely or nearly completely failed.

In 2023, on-the-record statements from a former EWEB employee-turned-whistleblower came to light, alleging that EWEB never intended to implement fish passage and that its excuses for delays were not valid. Both the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service then withdrew from the 2018 joint settlement agreement with EWEB and other stakeholders. The expert fish agencies also notified FERC that EWEB could no longer rely on their 2018 Biological Opinions and Incidental Take Statements without reinitiating consultation under the ESA. 

“EWEB is blatantly disregarding federal law,” said Hannah Goldblatt, staff attorney at Advocates for the West. “Short of a court requiring it to do so, it appears the public utility will continue to delay its commitments to complete adequate fish passage, at the expense of threatened Chinook salmon and bull trout.”

The Upper Willamette River Chinook salmon subpopulation, long seen as a stronghold for this threatened species, has further declined over the past 16 years with known salmon deaths occurring at the Trail Bridge Dam due to the lack of passage. The dam is also a full barrier to genetic exchange between bull trout populations below and above the dam. 

“The McKenzie River and the threatened salmon and trout that call it home belong to all of us, but for years EWEB has failed to keep its promise to help fish get around Trail Bridge Dam to spawn,” said John Persell, staff attorney for Oregon Wild. “We are going to make them fulfill that promise and protect the McKenzie.”

In addition to the ongoing harm caused to Chinook salmon and bull trout, the myriad delays have likely increased costs to ratepayers and the overall expense of bringing the project into compliance with federal law. Cascadia Wildlands brought their concerns to EWEB’s board of commissioners in May 2024 in both oral and detailed written comments. 

“Salmon and bull trout have an extraordinary capacity to recover when we simply fulfill our responsibility to provide effective and safe fish passage to and from high-quality habitat like we have in the upper McKenzie River,” said Jennifer Fairbrother, legislative and policy director for the Native Fish Society.

The organizations bringing suit are Cascadia Wildlands, Willamette Riverkeeper, Native Fish Society, and Oregon Wild. They are represented by attorneys at Public Justice, Advocates for the West, Cascadia Wildlands, and Willamette Riverkeeper.

Additional background:

Tribal entities and regional conservation groups have long engaged in advocating for fish passage at the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project and Trail Bridge Dam. In 2008, EWEB filed a settlement agreement with the Federal Energy and Regulatory Commission (FERC), conservation organizations, and Tribes in which EWEB agreed to construct new state-of-the-art volitional fish passage measures (a fish ladder) to allow fish access to miles of pristine river habitat above the Carmen-Smith Project. This never occurred.  

In 2018 a new settlement agreement was reached with FERC, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service to implement inferior trap-and-haul facilities in lieu of volitional passage within three years. These lessened standards prompted Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild to leave the settlement.  

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. 

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.

Willamette Riverkeeper is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1996 with thousands of members in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Willamette Riverkeeper focuses on protecting and restoring the resources of the Willamette River Basin in Oregon and works on programs and projects ranging from the Clean Water Act compliance and river education to Superfund cleanup and restoring habitat.

The Native Fish Society is a conservation nonprofit with a mission to restore abundant wild fish, free-flowing rivers, and thriving local communities across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.

Advocates for the West is a non-profit, public interest environmental law firm that works to defend public lands, water, fish, and wildlife throughout the American West.

Public Justice takes on the biggest systemic threats to justice of our time – abusive corporate power and predatory practices, the assault on civil rights and liberties, and the destruction of the earth’s sustainability. We connect high-impact litigation with strategic communications and the strength of our partnerships to fight these abusive and discriminatory systems and win social and economic justice. For more information, visit www.PublicJustice.net.

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