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.

In a time where billionaires set their sights toward the stars (or rather, just outside of earth’s atmosphere), we set our sights closer to home, towards the mossy branches of Oregon’s coastal mature and old-growth forests. On the branches of these forests, the marbled murrelet, a small, imperiled seabird, lays its single, green egg. The murrelet spends most of its life at sea, occupying a fragmented, coastal habitat that extends from Northern California to Southern Alaska. The small bird travels up to 50 miles inland to nest in the canopy of mature trees. Due to the murrelets’ low fecundity — meaning, the inability to produce an abundance of offspring — and narrow nesting preference, their survival heavily depends on the health and abundance of mature coastal forests. Unfortunately, these same forests are actively targeted for logging in Oregon, contributing significantly to the fragmentation of murrelet habitat.

In addition to the grave and imminent threat that the murrelet faces from habitat fragmentation, the seabird’s existence is also threatened by climate change. To illustrate, the 2021 Marbled Murrelet Status Review stated that just one environmental disaster could single-handedly eliminate the entire murrelet population in Oregon. Further, murrelets on the southern Oregon coast face an 80% risk of extinction by 2060, and murrelets on the central/northern Oregon coast face an 80% risk of extinction by 2100.

To protect the marbled murrelet from extinction, environmental groups petitioned the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in 2016 to follow California and Washington’s lead and “up-list” the murrelet from “threatened” to “endangered” under the state Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately, this fight developed into a tumultuous, five-year saga, involving sudden reversals and delays.

As Summer legal interns at Cascadia Wildlands, we jumped at the opportunity to join the fight and work with a team of lawyers, scientists, and community members to advocate for the murrelet’s up-listing. We dove deep into studies, past litigation, and records, gaining a thorough understanding of the marbled murrelet, the challenges it faces, and the status reviews conducted by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission over the past few years. Then, with the guidance and support of our team, we prepared testimony for the ODFW Commission meeting, where the vote regarding the seabird’s up-listing would take place.

On July 9th, along with many fellow advocates, and in the face of logging industry opposition, we presented our testimony to the commission, highlighting the threats to habitat fragmentation from logging and the precarity of the murrelet’s existence in a changing climate. We urged the commission to protect the marbled murrelet. The time to act was now.

After a full day of presentations, testimony, and advocacy from both sides, the commission delivered a vote to up-list the murrelet from “threatened” to “endangered”. While delivering the vote, Commissioner Khalil stated that we often lack the forward-thinking to make conservation efforts before it is too late. This time, we acted before it was too late.

Elie Steinberg
Lewis & Clark Law School 
J.D Candidate 2022

Marty Farrell
University of Oregon School of Law
J.D. Candidate 2023

The post BLOG: Legal Interns Set Sights on the Murrelet first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contact:        
Bethany Cotton, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Katie Arberg, Defenders of Wildlife
Bob Sallinger, Portland Audubon
John Mellgren, Western Environmental Law Center
Quinn Read, Center for Biological Diversity

Oregon Approves Petition to Increase Marbled Murrelet Endangered Species Protection

Coastal Seabird At Risk of Extinction From Extensive Logging

SALEM, Ore.— The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission today approved a petition filed by five conservation groups to give marbled murrelets more protection by reclassifying them from threatened to endangered under the state’s Endangered Species Act. The 4-3 decision comes two years after an Oregon judge ruled that the commission had violated state law by denying the petition without explanation in 2018. 

“We’re relieved that after so many missteps, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will finally move forward with extending marbled murrelets the full protection of endangered status under state law,” said Quinn Read, Oregon policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These unique birds face serious threats in Oregon from climate change, ocean warming, wildfire, and unchecked logging of their nesting habitat and should have been protected as endangered years ago.” 

The marbled murrelet is a small seabird that nests in old-growth and mature forests and forages at sea. Its population has declined dramatically in recent decades due to extensive logging in Oregon’s coast range. 

The bird was listed as threatened under the Oregon Endangered Species Act in 1995. But Oregon has allowed intensive clearcut logging to continue in marbled murrelet habitat on lands owned and regulated by the state. 

Habitat fragmentation, ocean warming, climate change and large-scale disturbances compound the existing threats and put this species’ future in greater jeopardy.

According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 2021 biological assessment, the marbled murrelet is considered one of the least resilient species to climate change, and is at risk of being wiped out by a single catastrophic event, like wildfire. 

Uplisting to endangered status requires the state to develop a management plan and survival guidelines, providing much-needed protection for the species. 

“We applaud the Commission for choosing to safeguard Oregon’s imperiled Marbled Murrelet population and its fragile forest habitat by uplisting the species to endangered,” said Danielle Moser, Wildlife Program Coordinator for Oregon Wild. “This decision is not only in step with science and Oregon law, but also illustrates the Commission’s willingness to be conservation leaders in the fight against the extinction crisis.”    

The groups petitioned the commission to uplist the marbled murrelet in 2016. The Department conducted a status review the following year to assess the murrelet’s condition and found that murrelets were at high risk of extinction, due largely to loss of nesting habitat from ongoing clearcut logging on lands managed by the state of Oregon. 

The status review provided copious evidence from multiple peer-reviewed studies that murrelets are at serious risk in Oregon. The best available science predicts the extinction probability at 80% by 2060 along Oregon’s central and north coasts and 80% by 2100 along Oregon’s south coast. California and Washington have already classified murrelets as endangered. 

“Today’s decision is a victory for the marbled murrelet,” said Sristi Kamal, Senior Representative for the Northwest Program at Defenders of Wildlife. “After four years of advocating to uplist the species, this decision has been a long time coming, and we are thrilled. Marbled murrelets face significant habitat loss due to excessive logging, and warming ocean waters due to climate change is impacting the species ability to forage and nest. We applaud the commission for taking a big step in the right direction which will give this species a much-needed opportunity to recover in the state.” 

In February 2018 the commission voted 4-2 to accept the petition and increase the seabird’s protections. The commission then instructed the wildlife agency’s staff to begin development of mandatory species survival guidelines as required under Oregon law. Yet, under pressure from the timber industry and its allies, the commission reversed itself without explanation and voted 4-2 in June 2018 to deny the petition it had accepted just four months earlier.

“It has been more than 25 years since the Marbled Murrelet was listed under the Oregon Endangered Species Act and during that time this amazing seabird has moved closer and closer to extinction in large part because of logging of its habitat on lands owned and managed by the State of Oregon,” said Portland Audubon Conservation Director, Bob Sallinger.  “The ODFW Commission made the right choice today based on both the law and science and hopefully is setting this species on a path towards recovery. However, today’s decision is just a first step. The decision to uplist needs to result in much more aggressive action on the ground to protect murrelets in Oregon.” 

“At long last, marbled murrelets will receive essential additional protections from the state of Oregon,” said Bethany Cotton, Conservation Director for Cascadia Wildlands. “While these protections should have been implemented years ago, we are grateful that ultimately science and law triumphed and murrelets will have a better chance in the face of a rapidly changing climate and aggressive private logging in their remaining old growth forest habitat.”

Lane County Circuit Court Judge Lauren Holland concluded in August 2019 that the Fish and Wildlife Commission had illegally changed its decision after first voting to accept the petition to list the murrelet as endangered. 

“The marbled murrelet is in trouble, and today’s action is an important first step in ensuring Oregon can help the seabird recover,” said John Mellgren, General Counsel for the Western Environmental Law Center. “We look forward to working collaboratively with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to ensure the murrelet can always call Oregon home.”

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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.

Defenders of Wildlife is a national wildlife conservation organization with nearly 2.2 million members and supporters dedicated to protecting imperiled and native species and their habitats.

Portland Audubon is a nonprofit conservation organization with over 17,000 members in Oregon with a mission to inspire all people to love and protect birds, wildlife, and the natural environment upon which life depends.

The Western Environmental Law Center uses the power of the law to safeguard the public lands, wildlife, and communities of the American West in the face of a changing climate. 

Cascadia Wildlands defends and restores Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts and in the streets. 

The post VICTORY! Marbled Murrelet Gains Increased Protections in Oregon first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contact:
Josh Laughlin, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 844-8182
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, (503) 484-7495
Bob Sallinger, Portland Audubon Society, (503) 380-9728
Tanya Sanerib, Crag Law Center, (503) 525-2722

The post Press Release: State of Oregon Suspends 10 State Forest Timber Sales in Marbled Murrelet Habitat first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.