Contacts:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Erin Hogan, Crag Law Center

Federal Agency Plan Would Intensively Log Remaining Spotted Owl Reserves

Eugene, OR — Today, Oregon-based conservation organizations Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild challenged the Bureau of Land Management’s (“BLM”) Siuslaw Field Office’s plan to log 13,225 acres of public forests in the coast range foothills west of Eugene. The agency’s Siuslaw HLB (“Harvest Land Base”) Project will clearcut these mature and old-growth forests that border many communities and residences west of Eugene. The BLM admits that this logging will increase fire hazard risks, slope instability and landslide risks, and drinking water contamination for these communities, but dismissed concerns raised about these impacts as insignificant.

“The BLM cannot continue to chase timber volume production at the expense of our communities,” said Nick Cady with Cascadia Wildlands. “Not only are we losing the few older forest stands that remain in the coast range, but admittedly the agency is putting us at increased risk from forest fires and landslides, and jeopardizing water quality. The little timber volume being generated from these mature, public forests is just not worth it.”

The targeted forests are home to at least four federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed species: northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and Chinook and Oregon Coast coho salmon, along with listing candidate species the red tree vole, which is a candidate for ESA listing. Most of the forests slated for logging are mature and old-growth forests that provide suitable habitat for these species, but the agency dismissed impacts to these imperiled species as insignificant without any actual review of the impacts the logging would have on the ground. 

Many of the local residents strongly oppose the logging, as they believe its negative impacts–including drinking water contamination, increased wildfire hazard, loss of recreation opportunities, soil erosion, further road construction, and outright habitat destruction–strongly outweigh any benefits associated with timber production.

“If they remain standing, our public forests provide so many important public services, including clean water, habitat for fish & wildlife, climate stability, fire resilience, recreation and quality of life. Clearcut logging will sacrifice all these values, and for what? The private profits of a few in the timber industry. BLM has a responsibility to tell the truth but they are hiding the fact that the public is getting a rotten deal here,”  said Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, including failure to take the requisite “hard look” at environmental impacts and failure to conduct any site-specific analyses or prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. The BLM is required under federal environmental law to consider the negative impacts the proposed logging will have on our communities and weigh those impacts against the alleged benefits of timber volume generation logging. Many of the local residents strongly oppose the logging, which they believe will create that the negative impacts–including contamination of to their drinking water, increases in fire hazard, loss of recreation opportunities, soil erosion and stability, further road construction, and outright habitat destruction–that which elimination strongly outweighs any benefits associated with timber production.  

“The BLM is attempting to evade its legal obligation to consider and publicly disclose the impact these clearcuts will have on sensitive wildlife species, forest health, carbon storage and climate change, water quality, and wildfire hazard,” said attorney Erin Hogan. “The agencies tasked with managing our public lands must be accountable to the public they serve.”

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

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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 Press Release: Conservationists Challenge Coast Range Logging Plan  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contact:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity
Danielle Moser, Oregon Wild
Bob Sallinger, Portland Audubon

Lawsuit Filed to Protect North Oregon Coast Red Tree Voles

Tree-Dwelling Vole Threatened by Logging, Wildfire, Climate Change

PORTLAND, Ore.— Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging a decision by the Trump administration to deny the north Oregon coast population of red tree voles protection under the Endangered Species Act.

In response to a 2007 petition from the groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found the vole warranted protection in 2011, but that such protection was precluded by listing other species. That determination was repeatedly reaffirmed until 2019, when the Trump administration abruptly reversed course and denied protections.

Red tree voles on Oregon’s north coast have been devastated by logging, wildfires and inadequate protections on state and private lands.

“We hope the Biden administration takes a close look at this politically driven decision, which is nothing more than another gift to the timber industry that ignores science,” said Noah Greenwald, the Center for Biological Diversity’s endangered species director. “Protecting the red tree vole means protecting the few remaining old forests on Oregon’s north coast. This benefits not just the vole, but also hundreds of other plants and animals, clean water and our climate.”

Red tree voles live nearly their entire lives in trees and are closely associated with old-growth forests. As one of very few mammals that can subsist entirely on conifer needles, tree voles rarely venture from the treetops to the ground, making them exceedingly vulnerable to logging and forest fragmentation. They have been nearly eliminated on the north coast by the long history of logging and wildfires in the region, including on the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests.

“Clearcut logging has reached record highs across the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests, and recent proposals from the Oregon Department of Forestry seek to explicitly ensure that forests are logged before they can become old-growth,” said Danielle Moser of Oregon Wild. “It’s not enough to just protect what remaining red tree vole habitat there is across Oregon’s north coast forests. We must allow some of the overcut tree plantations to mature, recover and become old-growth forests once again.”

The Oregon Department of Forestry is developing a habitat conservation plan that includes the tree vole but relies on very scant information about where it still remains, providing little assurance that the tree vole and the large blocks of old forest it lives in will be allowed to recover.

“Oregon’s north coast has been extensively logged, and the old forest that remains exists in small, isolated patches that shelter increasingly vulnerable populations of tree voles,” said Nick Cady, legal director of Cascadia Wildlands. “Not only do we need to protect what little habitat exists, but proactively restore larger patches of habitat to allow connectivity between the small, existing populations.”

“The plight of the red tree vole along with other species such as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet speak to the fact that the protections that are in place for Oregon’s older forests remain inadequate,” said Bob Sallinger, conservation director for Portland Audubon. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must follow both the law and the science and provide the red tree vole the protections they warrant before they disappear entirely from Oregon’s North Coast.”

Today’s lawsuit was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands and Portland Audubon.

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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Cascadia Wildlands is a grassroots conservation organization that defends and restores 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 works to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and waters as an enduring legacy for future generations.

Audubon Society of Portland was founded in 1902 to promote the understanding, enjoyment and protection of native birds, other wildlife and their habitats.

The post Lawsuit Filed to Protect Red Tree Vole first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

For Immediate Release

Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands (314) 482-3746

Medford BLM Old-Growth Timber Sale Faces Legal Challenge

Groups Oppose the Government Returning to Old-Growth Logging

Today a coalition of conservation organizations representing tens of thousands of Oregonians filed a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) seeking to halt the “Lower Grave” old-growth timber sale located on the Grave Creek tributary to the Rogue River.  This illegal logging project proposes to log fire-resilient old-growth forests currently serving as a critical refuge for the northern spotted owl, Coho salmon and red tree voles.

“The last thing the Grave Creek Watershed needs is more old-growth logging, more clearcutting and more logging roads,” said George Sexton, Conservation Director for KS Wild. “Our public land managers should be bringing communities together to restore forests, but the BLM appears intent on going back to the days of ripping up watersheds and slicking off native forests.”

The timber sale marks a sharp departure from the BLM’s prior restoration efforts in the Rogue River Basin aimed at undoing past damage wrought by rampant clearcutting and extensive road construction over the previous century.  Medford BLM had been successfully implementing “dry forest restoration” timber sales based on the recommendations of foresters Drs. Norm Johnson and Jerry Franklin. These dry-forest restoration principles allowed to the BLM to offer substantial timber volume for sale, while increasing the resistance of these forest stands to large fires, largely without controversy.

“Our organizations repeatedly stressed to the BLM that there was a way for them to design this project to generate timber for sale and protect the large old-growth trees,” said Nick Cady with Cascadia Wildlands.  “The BLM replied that its mission was to maximize the cut.  That is not the agency’s mission. The BLM is placing no value on wildlife, clean water, and forest health that Oregonians hold dear.”

The BLM admits that the timber sale will increase fire hazard in the “regeneration harvest” logging units in which over 95% of the old-growth trees will be removed and replaced with dense tree-farms. The sale will also result in the “take” of a newly established spotted owl pair and its juveniles.

“The Lower Grave timber sale is based on the wrong priorities. This logging will degrade rather than restore our public forests that have already been logged too much,” said Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild. “BLM’s top priority should be careful restoration of the public values that flow from our public forests, including clean water, recreation, climate stability, fish & wildlife, and quality of life that underpins our diverse economy.”

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The post Suit Filed to Prevent Old-Growth Logging Near Rogue River first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.