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Press Release: Conservation Groups Challenge BLM’s “Big League” Logging Project Due to Impacts on Imperiled Spring Chinook Salmon Habitat and Other Values
November 7, 2023 — Today, conservation organizations Willamette Riverkeeper, Cascadia Wildlands, and Oregon Wild filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), challenging the agency’s authorization of the approximately 4,600-acre Big League Project in the Calapooia and Mohawk River Watersheds northeast of Eugene. According to the groups’ complaint, the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to take the required “hard look” at the impacts that the Big League Project would have on a host of environmental values, including spotted owl habitat, carbon storage, stream flows, and water quality. Specifically, this project plans to clearcut the last and best older forest stands in the Calapooia and Mohawk River Watersheds.
Victory! Court rules GE Salmon Approval Unlawful!
November 10, 2020 — On November 5, 2020, a federal court ruled in favor of Cascadia Wildlands’ lawsuit that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) violated core federal laws when it approved the first-ever genetically engineered (GE) animal: a GE salmon! This decision is a huge victory for wild salmon, the environment, and our fishing communities.
Oregon Board of Forestry Grants Petition to Protect Coho Salmon from Private and State Logging
July 26, 2019 — Late Wednesday afternoon after hours of deliberation, the Oregon Board of Forestry voted 5-2 to accept a petition for rulemaking on coho salmon. The petition was brought by 22 different conservation and fishing groups under a rarely used portion of the Forest Practices Act which requires the Board to consider forest protections on private and state land when species are listed under state or federal endangered species acts. The Board is required to identify “resource sites” for listed species and subsequently develop rules to protect these species if threatened by state and private logging practices.
Oregon Board of Forestry Petitioned to Develop Coho Salmon Protections
April 24, 2019 — Today, twenty conservation and fishing organizations delivered a rulemaking petition to the Oregon Board of Forestry requesting new rules to prevent logging-related harm to “resource sites” for coho salmon listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Act. Coho salmon, which are split into three evolutionarily significant units in Oregon, were first listed in Southern Oregon in 1997, and soon thereafter along the rest of the Oregon Coast in 1998. The Lower Columbia coho population was listed almost over a decade ago, in 2005.
Press Release: 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds State Efforts to Protect Salmon Habitat from Mining
September 12, 2018 — This morning the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Oregon law restricting motorized gold mining in sensitive salmon streams. In 2017, Oregon passed the Suction Dredge Reform Bill (SB 3) to protect water quality and fish habitat across the state from damaging suction dredge mining.
Putting Fracked Gas Infrastructure on Kate Brown’s Agenda
The third resurrection of the zombie pipeline is upon us. Like the premise for an 80s horror film, the Jordan Cove Energy Project proposal slated for southwest Oregon makes little sense, yet it just won’t seem to be forgotten. First proposed in 2004, the 232-mile Pacific Connector LNG pipeline and accompanying Jordan Cove liquified … Continue reading Putting Fracked Gas Infrastructure on Kate Brown’s Agenda
Saving Oregon’s Famed Rivers and Wild Salmon from Gold Mining
by Nick Cady, Legal Director It has been a long road to suction-dredge mining reform in Oregon, but this campaign is close to finalizing permanent protections for Oregon’s iconic rivers and wild salmon. Suction dredging is an incredibly harmful, gold-mining practice that involves sucking up fragile river bottoms through a large, gas-powered vacuum. This mining practice … Continue reading Saving Oregon’s Famed Rivers and Wild Salmon from Gold Mining
Conservation Groups Decry Vote by State Treasurer, Secretary of State to Sell Elliott State Forest
February 15, 2017 — A broad coalition of conservation, hunting, and fishing groups across Oregon decried a state land board vote pushing the Elliott State Forest to brink of privatization yesterday.
Reflections on the Enormous Victory in Northern Cascadia and Coming Full Circle
by Gabe Scott, Cascadia Wildlands House Counsel Ready for some good news? Last week our partners at Eyak Preservation Council announced that the major part of Alaska’s Bering River Coalfield, and the old-growth forest on top of it, has been permanently protected! Several things about this historic victory make it especially sweet. Ecologically it protects … Continue reading Reflections on the Enormous Victory in Northern Cascadia and Coming Full Circle