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The post Act for the Willamette River: Hold the U.S. Army Corps Accountable first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Peter Jensen, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Lindsey Hutchison, Willamette Riverkeeper
John Persell, Oregon Wild

Eugene, Oregon – 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. 

Of particular concern, the BLM failed to fully analyze the effects of logging and road construction activities on the threatened Upper Willamette River spring Chinook salmon. According to a 2011 analysis by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), these salmon are at a “very high risk” of extinction and logging units within the Big League Project directly abut the species’ critical habitat in the Calapooia River.

Due to impacts on Chinook salmon, the conservation groups also gave notice to the BLM and NMFS that the agencies are in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by failing to account for changed conditions in the Calapooia Watershed following the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire.

“It’s outrageous and completely unacceptable that the BLM and NMFS have not acted in accordance with bedrock environmental laws. The BLM’s pursuit of clearcut logging along the Calapooia puts the Upper Willamette River spring Chinook salmon’s already fragile habitat directly at risk,” said Lindsey Hutchison of Willamette Riverkeeper.

The groups claim that the changed conditions in the Calapooia Watershed make the BLM’s timber sale unlawful. Particularly, while most of the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire burned at a low or moderate severity, a significant portion experienced high or moderate soil burn severity. Fire-damaged soils have high rates of root mortality and increased rates of water runoff and erosion. The fire affected nearly 14,000 acres of the Calapooia Watershed, eliminating streamside vegetation, destabilizing streambanks, and elevating sediment in the river. Such changed conditions make the BLM’s reliance on NMFS’s 2018 Biological Opinion (BiOp) to support the Big League Project and associated timber sales unlawful. 

“Once again, the BLM is rushing to log without fully considering how their actions impact the larger landscape,” said Peter Jensen of Cascadia Wildlands. “Our forests and watersheds will pay the price, and vulnerable spotted owl and salmon populations will be pushed even closer to extinction.”

In the 2018 BiOp, NMFS recognized that the BLM’s logging program would affect designated critical habitat by raising stream temperatures, introducing sediment into streams, reducing large wood recruitment into streams, and altering peak and base flows of streams. The added effects of the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire compound the harm that will result from the logging and road work authorized for the Big League Project. By ignoring the cumulative impacts on Chinook salmon, the BLM risks severely degrading the species’ habitat in pursuit of timber volume.

“Public lands are some of the last places for imperiled wildlife and quality salmon habitat, where mature and old-growth forests can grow to help us fight climate change and make the landscape more resilient,” said John Persell of Oregon Wild. “The BLM is performing a lot of bureaucratic gymnastics to argue that turning these refuge forests into another series of clearcuts, surrounded by more clearcuts, is going to have ‘no significant impact.'”

The Upper Willamette River spring Chinook salmon are a genetically distinct group, well-adapted to the natural river flows and seasonal changes of the Willamette River and its tributaries. Logging can degrade its stream habitat by muddying waters, altering riverbed stability, and obstructing migration corridors. All of these changes harm the survival of these unique salmon. Efforts to protect their habitat and ensure clean water, stable riverbeds, and clear migration paths are crucial, as their populations have sharply declined, with counts of wild Upper Willamette River spring Chinook averaging less than 10,000 fish annually at Willamette Falls since 2010. Historically, the Upper Willamette River supported hundreds of thousands of spring Chinook salmon. In the 1920s, approximately 300,000 adult spring Chinook salmon were observed passing Willamette Falls.

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. 

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.

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.

The post Press Release: Conservation Groups Challenge BLM’s “Big League” Logging Project Due to Impacts on Imperiled Spring Chinook Salmon Habitat and Other Values first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

This work was only possible with your support – THANK YOU!

The court ruled that FDA failed to analyze the serious risks to endangered salmon and other environmental impacts of this novel GE fish. The court declared FDA’s failures violated both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Genetically engineered animals create unique risks and regulators must rigorously analyze them using sound science, not stick their head in the sand as the officials did here. In reality, this engineered fish offers nothing but unstudied risks. The absolute last thing our planet needs right now is another human-created crisis like escaped genetically engineered fish running amok.

The most important part of the court’s decision yesterday was its resounding rejection of FDA’s far-reaching argument that the agency had no duty to protect against the environmental impacts of the GE salmon, or any future GE animal. Thanks to our lawsuit, FDA has to make a new GE salmon decision that accounts for and protects against those dangers. And it has to do the same for any future GE animals.

Yesterday’s victory was the result of over 4 years of hard-fought litigation: In 2016, Center for Food Safety (CFS) and Earthjustice — representing Cascadia Wildlands and a broad client coalition of environmental, consumer, commercial, and recreational fishing organizations — sued the FDA for approving the first-ever commercial genetically engineered animal, an Atlantic salmon engineered to grow twice as fast as its wild counterpart. The genetically engineered salmon was produced by AquaBounty Technologies Inc. with DNA from Atlantic salmon, Pacific king salmon, and Arctic Ocean eelpout. This marks the first time any government in the world has approved a commercially genetically engineered animal as food.

Studies have shown that there is a high risk for genetically engineered organisms to escape into the natural environment, and that genetically engineered salmon can crossbreed with native fish. “Transgenic contamination” — where genetically engineered crops cross-pollinate or establish themselves in nearby fields or the wild — has become common. These contamination episodes have cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars over the past decade. In wild organisms like fish, the damage would be even severe. 

Currently there are no genetically engineered fish being sold in the U.S., and if any fish were to be sold, it would be required to be labeled as genetically engineered. And thanks to pressure from Cascadia Wildlands members like you, dozens of retailers such as Kroger have already pledged to NOT sell GE salmon!

Lawsuits such as these take many years and thousands of hours.
Thank you for helping make this victory possible!

The post Victory! Court rules GE Salmon Approval Unlawful! first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

While coho salmon have been threatened with extinction for years, the Board of Forestry has until now never initiated a state-mandated review of its rules to protect the fish. “The Oregon Forest Practices Act requires the Board of Forestry to address conflicts between logging and habitat for species at risk of extinction,” said Nick Cady, Legal Director with Cascadia Wildlands. “The major ongoing conflict between logging practices and coho salmon habitat is finally getting the hard look it deserves.”

The Board has only undertaken such efforts for a handful of bird species and had never done such work for coho salmon, which are listed as threatened by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The petition specifically asked the Board to (1) collect and analyze the best available information on coho salmon; (2) conduct a resource site inventory; and (3) adopt rules to protect resource sites and to develop a process to identify new sites in the future.

“This resource site process allows the state of Oregon to take a wholistic look at the numerous different ways logging impacts salmon and its breeding habitat. Practices that perpetuate poor habitat conditions like intensive logging too close to streams and on landslide-prone areas, sediment from forest roads, and large areas dominated by clear-cuts” said Robyn Janssen with Rogue Riverkeeper. “Oregon’s rules for state and private timberlands are the weakest in the Pacific Northwest, and it is encouraging to see the Board take its first steps towards addressing these deficiencies.”

Oregon has relied heavily on voluntary measures by timber companies to protect coho. Between 1995 and 2017, taxpayers invested $65 million dollars of public funds on instream habitat restoration efforts. However, Oregon’s weak forest practices rules still allow logging to degrade aquatic habitat critical to the recovery of coho salmon.

“It is an obvious case of one step forward, two steps back. We need to address the root causes of fish decline. The public’s investments in habitat restoration activities cannot keep up with the pace or scale of the ongoing degradation from poor forest practices,” said Nick Cady. “The Board has a perfect opportunity now to address these inefficiencies and meaningfully address salmon recovery where it matters most.”

The post Oregon Board of Forestry Grants Petition to Protect Coho Salmon from Private and State Logging first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Twenty Oregon Fishing and Conservation Groups Petition for New Logging Rules to Protect Coho Salmon

SALEM, OR – 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.

While coho salmon have been threatened with extinction for years, the Board of Forestry has never initiated a state-mandated review of its rules to protect the fish. “The Oregon Forest Practices Act clearly requires the Board of Forestry to address conflicts between logging and habitat for species at risk of extinction,” said Nick Cady, legal counsel with Cascadia Wild. “There are major ongoing conflicts between logging practices and coho salmon habitat that need to be resolved.”

Oregon has relied heavily on voluntary measures by timber companies to protect coho. Between 1995 and 2017, taxpayers invested $65 million dollars of public funds on instream habitat restoration efforts. However, Oregon’s weak forest practices rules still allow logging to degrade aquatic habitat critical to the recovery of coho salmon. Conrad Gowell, Fellowship Director with the Native Fish Society notes “We need to address the root causes of fish decline. The public’s investments in habitat restoration activities cannot keep up with the pace or scale of the ongoing degradation from poor forest practices.”

Oregon’s rules for state and private timberlands are the weakest in the Pacific Northwest. “Oregon has dragged its feet in addressing problems that have long been identified by state and federal expert agencies,” observed Mary Scurlock with the Oregon Stream Protection Coalition. “Intensive logging too close to streams and on landslide-prone areas, sediment from forest roads, and large areas dominated by clear-cuts and young plantations are perpetuating poor freshwater habitat conditions.”

“The Board has been taking a very slow and piecemeal approach to updating its policies,” said Robyn Janssen, “The last rule change took 15 years but still didn’t address some of the biggest problems for salmon and water quality – and left the Rogue Basin and its salmon out of the picture entirely. We can’t afford to wait another 20 years for Oregon to bring its logging rules up to snuff.”

The post Oregon Board of Forestry Petitioned to Develop Coho Salmon Protections first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (314) 482-3746, nick@old.cascwild.org
Pete Frost, Western Environmental Law Center, 541-359-3238, frost@westernlaw.org
Stacey Detwiler, Rogue Riverkeeper, (541) 488-9831, stacey@rogueriverkeeper.org
Jonathan Evans, Center for Biological Diversity, (510) 844-7118, jevans@biologicaldiversity.org

PORTLAND, Ore.— 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.

A coalition of conservation and fisheries groups joined the case to help defend the Oregon law, including Rogue Riverkeeper, Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Oregon Coast Alliance, Cascadia Wildlands, Native Fish Society, and the Center for Biological Diversity. The groups were represented by the Eugene-based Western Environmental Law Center and the Colorado-based Western Mining Action Project.

“The court correctly ruled that states can protect water quality and wild fish from harmful motorized mining,” said Pete Frost, attorney for Rogue Riverkeeper and other conservation groups. “This decision supports a growing effort in western states to protect clean water and wildlife for everyone.”

Suction dredge mining is a type of recreational gold mining that uses gas-powered, floating dredges to suck up the bottoms of rivers. This type of mining can trap and kill fish, smothers critical spawning gravel for salmon, and stir up legacy mercury and other toxic metals from historic mining operations.

“Democrats and Republicans in urban and rural Oregon worked to pass Senate Bill 3 to protect Oregon’s rivers and fisheries,” said Stacey Detwiler of Rogue Riverkeeper. “Today’s decision honors the legacy of Senator Alan Bates from southern Oregon who championed the rights of all Oregonians to clean, healthy waterways where iconic salmon and lamprey are protected from harmful mining practices.”

SB 3 protects Oregon’s rivers and the communities that rely on them by prohibiting suction dredge mining in designated essential salmonid habitat. Outside these areas, suction dredge mining can occur under permit.

“This is a major step in the battle to protect the health of our families, waterways and wildlife from this dirty, outdated form of mining that pollutes our waterways with sediment and toxic mercury and destroys irreplaceable cultural resources,” said Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Peer-reviewed science shows that suction dredging can stir up toxic mercury buried in streambeds, as well as reduce salmon spawning success due to alterations in habitat. Additionally, in hot spots — such as the Umpqua and Rogue rivers — the number of dredges has created conflicts with anglers and other recreationists.

“This victory comes as a huge relief,” said Nick Cady with Cascadia Wildlands. “It would have been ridiculous to let gold mining in salmon spawning habitat proceed unregulated after all we have invested as a state in salmon recovery.”

The Suction Dredge Reform bill works to protect clean and healthy rivers that support Oregon’s recreation and commercial fishing industries. In 2008 the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife found that people spent $2.5 billion on fish and wildlife recreation in the state.

The post Press Release: 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds State Efforts to Protect Salmon Habitat from Mining first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

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 natural gas (LNG) terminal have been met with over a decade of grassroots resistance from concerned citizens, landowners faced with eminent domain, local tribes, politicians and environmentalists.

While the gas export project has been rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) twice since its initial proposal, the project proponent, Canada-based Veresen, has filed again for reconsideration. Many are worried about the possibility of it being approved this time around, with the pro-business Trump administration at the helm.

These increased concerns have motivated communities around the state into more concerted action. In this spirit of action, I joined the Cascadia Wildlands team on a trip to Salem to offer public comment at the Oregon State Land Board meeting. While LNG was not officially on the State Land Board’s agenda, the meeting provided the perfect opportunity to get in the room with Governor Kate Brown (who has the power to end this recurring nightmare once and for all) and get our message heard.

Waking up early after a long night of studying isn’t always the most appealing prospect, even to do something as important as fight an immoral and unsafe pipeline. After squeezing in an extra hour of sleep on the drive up to the Capitol, I straightened my rumpled clothing (I was wearing a button up for added effect) and started preparing to make my first-ever public comment.

I immediately felt out of place upon entering the halls of the Department of State Lands building, surrounded by legislators and bureaucrats dressed to the nines in suits and ties, and well equipped with patent leather briefcases. After some hesitation and a good bit of milling around, I signed my name on the list to comment, feeling a healthy dose of apprehension about speaking directly to Governor Brown.

The meeting began with the rap of a gavel and Brown’s acknowledgement of the retirement of a long-time civil servant, after which she suggested that public comment be made before the bulk of the meeting take place. At this point, I was frantically reading over the statement prepared by Cascadia Wildlands’ Grassroots Organizer and trying to draft one of my own before taking to the podium.

Conveniently, the proposed project offers no shortage of potential critiques, ranging from environmental hazards, safety considerations and environmental justice concerns.  At the forefront are the 400 waterways this pipeline would cross (and surely pollute), the 95-ft. wide clearcut that pipeline construction would require through public and private land, and the fact that, if built, the project would become the number one climate polluter in the state of Oregon. All of this isn’t to mention the concerns of many indigenous peoples in Southern Oregon, who claim that the pipeline will unearth burial grounds and damage important cultural sights.

There is also the potential for an explosive leak, which could ignite forest fires, damage homes and endanger lives. Disaster associated with a cataclysmic earthquake anticipated off of Oregon any day is also of major concern. The LNG facility would be built in the tsunami inundation zone on the spit in Coos Bay where the ocean meets land…

Thankfully I managed to give comment without incident, emphasizing the importance of Brown recognizing tribal concerns about the project while masking the nervous tremor in my voice.

After we finished giving our comments, the meeting resumed, only to be interrupted seconds later by a group of folks across the room. The din of noise makers and chanting drowned out Brown’s incredulous objections, and the protesters unfurled a banner that read “Climate Leaders Don’t Build Pipelines: Stop Jordan Cove.” The protestors read statements over Brown’s frustrated calls for silence, while the police liaison negotiated for time with the two cops that immediately moved to escort them out. Three of the protestors had the opportunity to speak before the group was lead out by the police, mentioning indigenous protest, safety concerns, and climate justice in their comments. The meeting proceeded with an awkward silence after the last of the protestors had left.

While Brown has continued to posture herself as a “climate leader,” she has remained unwilling to pull the plug on the Pacific Connector Pipeline and Jordan Cove Energy Project. We must keep the heat on her.

We can’t let Kate Brown forget that she is accountable to the will of her constituents. More actions like the recent one in Salem will be imperative in maintaining pressure on Brown, especially as the pipeline begins to rear its ugly head for a (hopefully) final showdown.

Kate Brown’s Contact Information:

Office of the Governor

900 Court Street, Suite 254

Salem, OR 97301-4047

Phone: 503-378-4582

The post Putting Fracked Gas Infrastructure on Kate Brown’s Agenda first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

This mining technique first crossed Cascadia’s radar in 2009, when the American Fisheries Society first began pressuring the California Legislature to ban the practice that was harming salmon runs. Ultimately in 2012, California banned suction dredging legislatively. In the meantime, they began migrating north into Oregon, and dedgers began targeting some of Oregon’s most treasured waterways including the Rogue, South Umpqua and Illinois Rivers. From 2009 to 2012, the number of dredging permits issued doubled from approximately 900 to nearly 2,000 in Oregon. Because there was little oversight of the practice in Oregon, miners were running amok in some of the best salmon-spawning habitat in the state.

The post Saving Oregon’s Famed Rivers and Wild Salmon from Gold Mining first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

The post Conservation Groups Decry Vote by State Treasurer, Secretary of State to Sell Elliott State Forest first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Several things about this historic victory make it especially sweet. Ecologically it protects one of the most magnificent places on earth, a vast wild wetland on Cascadia's northern edge. Better, it does it in a precedent-setting way that puts the region’s indigenous people in charge. Personally I am proud that we Cascadians played a big part creating the conditions where this victory could happen. And, most of all, let us be inspired by the example of our close partner and good friend Dune Lankard, the Eyak native whose visionary leadership and sheer determination has achieved what few believed was possible.

To the north is the largest protected wilderness in the whole world: from here into the Yukon territory all the way down to Glacier Bay. To the east is the largest ice-field outside the poles. The ice is moving, glaciers sliding forward and melting back, uncovering infant land. To the west is the Copper River Delta, and beyond that Cordova and Prince William Sound. This is the largest contiguous wetland in Cascadia, home to the world-famous Copper River salmon fishing fleet, and incredible concentrations of swans, geese and shorebirds.

The conservation deal announced yesterday is precent setting for it’s unique mix of conservation and indigenous control. The Native Conservancy is a new idea, the brainchild of Dune Lankard, that was critical to the deal working. Formulated as a sort of friendly amendment to the Nature Conservancy, the idea is to incorporate social justice for indigenous people into long-term land conservation.

When I first arrived there was the coalfield, an oilfield, a deepwater port, a road across the Delta and another one up the river, cruise ships and a Princess lodge, all interlocking. None of these threats alone could gain traction, but any two or more of them would forever destroy the wilderness. Dune and I spent countless hours together on the basketball court scheming the demise of this web of threats. For the next nineteen years, Cascadia and Eyak worked together on the campaigns. Together we stopped the road across the Delta, the deepwater port at Shepard Point, and oil drilling at Katalla. 

The post Reflections on the Enormous Victory in Northern Cascadia and Coming Full Circle first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.