2007
We successfully halted the Black Crater post-fire timber sale near Sisters, Oregon, on the Deschutes National Forest. CWP's staff attorney Dan Kruse's efforts forced the Forest Service to settle our lawsuit that protected nearly 200 acres of burned forests that lies in a designated late successional reserved and within critical habitat for threatened northern spotted owls.
Through organizing and advocacy efforts, we helped kill a bill in Congress introduced by Greg Walden (R-OR) that would have sidestepped environmental law to facilitate clearcutting after all natural disturbance events on public lands, including wildfire, hurricanes, tornados, insect outbreaks, and even volcanic eruptions.
We won a lawsuit that challenged a US Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinion that approved older forest logging in southwest Oregon. An appeals court found that the agency failed to quantify how many endangered northern spotted owls the logging would kill.
Represented by the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, we forced the withdraw of six biological opinions issued by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency in charge of recovering endangered species. These withdraws halted plans to log tens of thousands of acres of older forest essential to northern spotted owl recovery.
Represented by the the Western Environmental Law Center, we won a lawsuit that challenged the Bush administrations National Forest Management Act regulations that would have weakened environmental protection measures in the statute.
We continue to be involved in the Carmen-Smith dam reliscensing effort on the McKenzie River. Our participation has lead to the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) to seriously consider installing a fish ladder at Trailbridge dam that would open up miles of spawning habitat for endangered bull trout and Chinook salmon.
Represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, we filed a lawsuit that compelled the US Fish and Wildlife Service to consider listing the imperiled Siskiyou Mountain and Scotts Bar salamanders on the Endangered Species Act.
2006
Represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, we halted six old-growth timber sales in the Mt. Hood and Willamette National Forest with a successful lawsuit.
Represented by Erin Madden, we won a lawsuit that stopped three southern Oregon BLM timber sales that were illegally planned by not surveying for the elusive red tree vole, a small arboreal mammal that lives in the upper canopy.
We pressured Oregon Governor Kulongoski to oppose the roadless area logging in the aftermath of the 2002 Biscuit fire. His lawsuit challenging the logging led to the re-instatement of the popular Clinton-era Roadless Rule, which the Bush administration had repealed.
2005
We united diverse stakeholders, from local businesses to university professors, which compelled the Eugene City Council to adopt a resolution urging the US Forest Service to end ancient forest logging on public lands in the McKenzie River watershed. This watershed provides unparalleled recreational opportunities, essential habitat for a host of endangered species (including the northern spotted owl and bull trout), and municipal drinking water for over 200,000 residents downstream.
We helped pass a state plan to recover wolves in Oregon by mobilizing hundreds of Oregon citizens to write letters to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and testify and public hearings. Recently it was reported that wolves have successfully traveled from Idaho into Oregon for the first time in over 60 years.
We halted all of the egregious timber sales associated with the East Fork Coquille Project, which would have logged nearly 400 acres of 300-500 year old coastal rainforest, through a grassroots organizing campaign and a lawsuit where we were represented by the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center.
We helped advance collaborative restoration projects on the Cottage Grove District of the Umpqua National Forest, including thinning in tree farms and decommissioning roads. Four years ago, the Cottage Grove District was focused primarily on logging mature and old-growth and has done and about-face due to our successful outreach and litigation efforts.
We stopped a government/industry plan to build a strip mall outside of Palmer, Alaska along the banks of the Little Susitna River, a stronghold for wild salmon runs.
We worked with Rep. Peter DeFazio's office to introduce a bill into Congress that would permanently protect remaining old-growth forests in western Oregon and Washington and facilitate restoration thinning in tree farms to increate diversity and employment opportunities.
2004 and earlier
• We shut down logging in critical habitat for bull trout. More than 4200 acres of mature and old-growth forest on the southern end of the Willamette National Forest are now off the chopping block, and almost 25 miles of new logging road construction has been stopped. The Middle Fork Ranger District has since promised not to log any more old growth!
• Our grassroots citizens campaign in Cottage Grove, OR has led the Forest Service to withdraw planning on all old-growth timber sales on the Cottage Grove Ranger District. Click here to learn about the timber sales that were stopped.
• Litigation and grassroots pressure led the Willamette National Forest, once the largest single producer of old-growth timber in the country, to stop planning of all old-growth clearcuts.
• Working with the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, we won a court victory stopping logging of the Timbered Rock Salvage sale.
• One of our lawsuits led to no bids on the Eyerly salvage sale on the Deschutes National Forest.
• Pressure from the CWP led the Willamette National Forest to withdraw plans to salvage log in the Fall Creek watershed.
• Our Alaska Field Campaign stopped proposed oil exploration on the Katalla River, next door to the Copper River Delta, the richest waterfowl and salmon habitat in the world.
