From September 26-28, the World Forestry Center in Portland will be hosting a conference titled “Who Will Own The Forest,” set to be attended by the most notorious representatives in the Wall Street timber industry to scheme on the financialization of forest ecosystems, expand greenwashing, carbon trading, biomass, and land grabs in Cascadia and around the globe.

A growing coalition of community-based organizations from across the region will be hosting a public rally on Wednesday, September 27 at the World Forestry Center as well as an alternative “Who Should Own The Forest” conference from 10am – 5pm on September 28 to protest the industry’s polluting practices and point to a positive vision for just and sustainable land ownership and management models.

Get in touch with Madeline Cowen, Grassroots Organizer, at madeline@cascwild.org if you’d like to get involved and volunteer! You can find more information about the event here.

The post Rally Against the “Who Will Own the Forest” Conference — Sept 27 first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

by Alexander Harris, Forest Policy Consultant for Cascadia Wildlands

Last week, the Oregon Legislature ended its short session early, lacking the requisite number of legislators to pass any of the bills being considered. Two weeks prior, Republican members of the State House and Senate fled the state Capitol in protest of a cap & trade proposal being advanced by the Democratic supermajority, stalling all pending legislation and launching the Capitol into political turmoil.

The walkout marks the third time in the past year that Republican legislators have neglected the core responsibility of their public service – showing up to legislative session – in an attempt to thwart the quorum Democrats need to pass legislation. The temper tantrum, which began February 24, effectively ended the 35-day session two weeks early and denied Democrats the opportunity to pass not only the climate bill, but also bills addressing wildfire risk (see below), flood assistance, and more.

To add to the political drama, Republican obstructionism also endangered a historic agreement between Oregon’s largest timber corporations and conservation groups, resulting in a rare rift between the GOP and logging interests. Republican opposition to the climate bill was bolstered by Timber Unity, the front group funded and organized by logging interests; however, the walkout that ensued ended up undermining the timber industry’s chief priority this session by threatening the viability of the timber-conservation deal (read more below). This development is quite ironic due to the fact that timber corporations literally bankroll the campaigns of Republicans in Oregon’s legislature.

The sudden end to the legislative session leaves a great deal of uncertainty for the months ahead and sets the tone for what is expected to be a major year in American politics.

ONCE AGAIN, OREGON FAILS TO PASS CARBON REGULATION

The most high-profile bill this session, SB 1530, aimed to create a market-based cap & invest program known as the Oregon Greenhouse Gas Initiative (OGGI). Environmental and social justice activists have advocated for a statewide carbon program for years, prompting Democrats to prioritize passing a cap & trade program this short session over all other bills; however, as the legislative session approached the bill was increasingly watered down in an effort to keep Republicans at the table (and in the building), leading dozens of organizations to refrain from endorsing the legislation. If you can believe it, the timber industry won over the key Democrats in Salem and succeeded in exempting logging in Oregon from the cap & trade legislation, even though logging is a leading source of carbon emissions in the state.

The most concerning provision in the climate bill proposed allocating a quarter of the all OGGI revenue to fund the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) to conduct a landscape-scale thinning program, largely targeting National Forests and other public lands. Using cap & trade revenue to fund broadscale thinning seems to ignore the scientific literature about how aggressive thinning programs release far more carbon into the atmosphere than wildfires do as well as increase the severity of future forest fires. Cascadia Wildlands and partner groups have repeatedly advocated for wildfire funds to be allocated towards strategies that bolster community resilience and preparation rather than thinning over vast landscapes. (Watch Sam Krop, Grassroots Organizer for Cascadia Wildlands give testimony on this topic: video available below, or HERE – timestamp: 1:40:47.) The irony with this provision of the OGGI was thick — use monies from cap & trade legislation to fund extensive carbon-emitting logging across Oregon’s forested landscape.

OREGON ASSERTS NEW ROLE IN MANAGING FEDERAL LAND

The other major priority for legislators this short session was to pass comprehensive wildfire legislation. Each of the wildfire bills proposed this session were based on the recommendations developed by the Governor’s Wildfire Response Council, which released a report in November 2019. Many of the Council’s recommendations were encouraging, especially those focused on making communities more resilient to future wildfires – others, however, urged state lawmakers to double down on the 20th century strategies that are proven to be costly and ineffective (e.g. increased logging and fire suppression).

The Council’s most controversial (and expensive) recommendation was for an unprecedented, landscape-scale thinning program meant to disrupt wildfire behavior. The program – estimated to cost $4 billion – would greatly expand the role that the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) plays in managing our National Forests, and would authorize thinning vast swaths of Oregon’s forested landscape. Sure enough, the proposal to adopt a landscape-scale thinning program showed up in legislation this short session, recommending that ODF “treat” one-tenth of Oregon’s entire landbase!

In preparation for the session, Cascadia Wildlands helped lead an informal coalition of climate, social justice, and conservation groups to advocate for wildfire funds to be allocated towards community adaptation and resilience measures instead of thinning efforts in the backcountry on public lands. On the first day of session, Cascadia Wildlands joined 18 other organizations around the state in a letter to legislators advocating for wildfire policy to adhere to the latest science. In our letter, we wrote:

Scientists predict that the coming decades will bring more climate change-driven wildfires in Oregon’s forests. Therefore, we must prioritize policies focused on community adaptation rather than futile attempts to modify fuel conditions and control fire behavior across the entire landscape.

Experts have found that the three most effective strategies to protect homes and communities from wildfire are to: 1) retrofit homes with fire-resistant materials; 2) maintain defensible space within 100 feet of structures; and 3) limit new development in fire-prone areas. This approach differs starkly from landscape-scale thinning efforts, which are proven to be expensive, ecologically destructive, and ineffective at controlling wildfire behavior. Currently, government agencies spend millions of dollars logging to reduce fuels, yet data from the Forest Service shows less than 1% of thinning projects encounter wildfire each year, simply because our forests are vast and we cannot predict where fires will burn next. Thinning efforts should instead be focused on the forests directly adjacent to homes and communities where they can actually help enhance public safety.

Read our new factsheet to learn more about which strategies researchers say work best in protecting people and property from wildfire risks.

Over the last few weeks, several wildfire bills were wrapped into one large bill, SB 1536. Unfortunately, almost all of the adaptation measures we advocated for were dropped; however, due to our coalition’s efforts and the strong leadership of Senator Jeff Golden (D-Ashland), we were successful in striking the landscape-scale thinning program from the final bill. Instead, the bill includes a much more narrow and focused approach to reduce fuels by authorizing demonstration projects in strategic locations. These demonstration projects are meant to help inform state legislators and ODF about where thinning makes sense (and where it doesn’t), as well as how the state can expand its use of prescribed fire. The bill also includes many sideboards to keep commercial thinning out of the ecologically sensitive areas, although many notable exceptions remain.

Rumors of a special session are circulating around the Capitol, which means this bill actually has a chance of passing this year. If this happens, Cascadia Wildlands and partner groups will launch an extensive monitoring campaign to ensure these fuel reduction projects stay out of older, native forests and instead target the areas that pose the greatest risks to homes and communities – such as even-aged plantations and fire-suppressed stands near where people actually live.

FOREST WATERS BALLOT INITIATIVE – THE ROAD AHEAD

The Republican walkout derailed a variety of other important legislation, such as the aerial spray reforms agreed to by conservation groups and timber companies last month. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – signed by two dozen conservation organizations and logging companies on February 10 – initiates a longer term process to enact comprehensive, science-based reforms to Oregon’s logging laws; however, the entire deal hinged on the legislature passing a bill this session to modernize aerial pesticide spraying laws.

With the legislative session now over, much remains uncertain about the future of this bill or the fate of the larger deal. The impetus behind the deal was the introduction of ballot initiatives by a statewide coalition of concerned communities and non-profit groups to greatly expand protections for Oregon’s forested watersheds. The growing “Forest Waters” movement around the state led the timber industry to propose their own counter ballot initiatives – which eventually prompted negotiations to scrap the initiatives and develop the MOU.

If the legislature is able to pass the aerial spray legislation during a special session – which is a viable possibility – the MOU will likely move forward as planned; however, if Republican obstructionism prevents bills from passing during a special session, conservation groups and frontline communities may well return to the original strategy of running a grassroots campaign to collect signatures and build awareness for a ballot initiative.

None of this progress would be possible without the grassroots support from activists and public lands defenders around the state. Thank you for staying active in all these efforts. Your voice matters even during these otherworldly political times, like when our lawmakers can walk off the job whenever they want to. Let’s keep our sleeves rolled up for what is likely to be one of the most consequential years in decades. Oregonians are demanding clean water, safety from wildfires, and expanded protections for our public lands – we won’t quit until systemic change is realized!

The post Salem Debacle Kicks Off a Very Consequential Year first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

On the evening of July 2, Oregon Federal District Judge Michael McShane issued a legal order effectively halting the “Lower Graves” old-growth timber sale proposed above the popular lower Rogue River in the Grants Pass Resource Area of the Medford BLM District. The 571-acre timber sale targeted mature and old-growth forests for partial cutting and “regeneration” logging in which forest canopy and wildlife habitat would be removed, and the fire hazard would be increased with the establishment of fire-prone, dense timber plantations.

“It is remarkable, but not surprising, that in 2019 BLM timber sale planners are still pushing to log fire-resistant ancient forests that will dramatically increase the fire hazard for the area,” said Nick Cady, Legal Director for Cascadia Wildlands. “It is irresponsible of the BLM to pursue a political old-growth logging agenda as communities in southwest Oregon are working to create landscapes more resilient to wildfire.”

“Conservation organizations tried to work with the BLM during the planning process to protect rather than destroy these forests,” observed George Sexton, Conservation Director for KS Wild. “We proposed a dry forest restoration alternative that would have focused on fuels reduction and timber plantation thinning to reduce fire hazard,” he continued. “But the BLM’s extreme timber agenda seems to preclude responsible forestry.”

The BLM’s refusal to consider a reasonable dry forest restoration alternative to their oldgrowth clearcutting was their undoing in this case as the federal court held that public lands managers cannot simply ignore the need to reduce, rather than increase, fire hazard on these public lands.

Oregon Wild Communications Manager Arran Robertson noted that, “Throughout the Northwest, communities and forest managers are coming together to thin timber plantations and reduce fire risk near homes and structures. The BLM needs to get with the program. The agency’s single-minded focus on timber production is a relic of the last century. We need to get past the fight over old-growth forests and start doing the necessary work repairing previously logged forests that are now more susceptible to wildlfire.”

Conservation plaintiffs in the case included the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center (KS Wild), Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild. These non-profit forest advocacy organizations were represented by attorneys Nick Cady and Marianne Dugan.

The post Legal Victory: Lower Grave Timber Sale Halted first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 19, 2019

Contact:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, 314-482-3746
Doug Heiken, Oregon Wild, 541-344-0675

Lawsuit Says BLM Clearcuts on the Edge of Springfield Will Increase Fire Hazard and Harm Recreation
Conservation groups and neighbors challenge the Pedal Power timber sale in the Thurston Hills

Eugene — Today, Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild filed a lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plans to clearcut 100 acres of public forest on the edge of Springfield and directly adjacent to Willamalane’s recently opened 665-acre Thurston Hills Natural Area. In their complaint, the conservation organizations and residents who live adjacent to the proposed clearcutting cite increased fire hazards and threats to recreation from the logging.

“I am concerned that the Bureau of Land Management chose to ignore the increased risk of wildfire that would result from their clearcut proposal, and am worried that the Thurston Hills timber sale will not only be a local eyesore, but will also threaten the safety of my home and community,” says Sue Hartman, a local resident who lives off of 69th Street in Springfield, close to the proposed logging.

The area to be logged was specifically designated as a recreation area in BLM’s 2016 Resource Management Plan (RMP). The recreation area designation is meant to complement the recreation and natural area goals on Willamalane’s Thurston Hills Natural Area which borders the BLM property. BLM has plans to build several miles of new non-motorized hiking and biking trails in the area after logging is complete. The new RMP calls on BLM to manage the area for high quality recreation experiences. The lawsuit says clearcutting violates this requirement, and the agency should have considered thinning instead of clearcutting to better harmonize timber and recreation goals.

“No one wants to go hiking or biking in a clearcut,” says Nick Cady of Cascadia Wildlands. “The BLM, true to form, is putting logging ahead of recreation, even in an area specifically designated for the public’s enjoyment.”

The lawsuit also points out that clearcutting will increase fire hazard posing a threat to dozens of nearby homes. Clearcutting removes fire-resistant trees with thick bark and high canopies. After logging, tree planting creates dense conifer plantations that have dense interlocking branches close to the ground. Fire experts recognize this as a very hazardous fuel condition. Nearby residents raised serious concerns about fire hazard during the public comment period, and BLM admits that logging will increase fire hazard for 40 years after logging. However, BLM refused to consider alternatives to clearcutting, such as thinning, that would likely reduce fire hazard.

“With the climate getting steadily warmer, it is simply irresponsible for BLM to put Springfield residents at increased risk of fire for the next 40 years,” said Kebrhea Cuellar, a local resident who lives in Springfield, close to the proposed logging. “It is baffling why the agency chose to conduct clearcutting instead of thinning in this recreation area so close to Springfield.

The timber sale has drawn ire not only from conservation and recreation interests, but also neighbors and elected officials like Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), whose Congressional District includes this area. In June 2018, the Congressman wrote the BLM and told them, “If the BLM proceeds with this project, it will inflict lasting damage to its reputation and will garner ill will from the community for decades. The agency will lose any trust or goodwill that has been built over the years by previous district managers.” Shortly thereafter, the BLM made minor changes to the timber sale, but moved forward with the majority of the proposed logging.

More information on the project here.

Maps of the project area are below:

The post Thurston Hills Timber Sale Challenged! first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contact:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (314) 482-3746
Doug Heiken, Oregon Wild, (541) 344-0675
Reed Wilson, Benton Forest Coalition, (541) 754-3254

EUGENE, Ore.— Today, three conservation groups challenged the 847-acre Quartz timber sale on the Cottage Grove Ranger District of the Umpqua National Forest that targets mature forests. The contested area is home to a thriving population of red tree voles, a small tree-dwelling mammal that is a prey source for the imperiled northern spotted owl and is critical to forest ecosystems in western Oregon.

“It is incredibly disappointing to again witness the Forest Service targeting mature forests to solely benefit private timber interests,” said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. “The Quartz timber sale is a clear example of the Forest Service’s pursuit of commercial timber at the expense of all the other public values this agency is required to protect.”

The red tree vole is a unique tree-dwelling species that inhabits mature and old-growth forests throughout much of western Oregon. Extensive red tree vole habitat has been destroyed by aggressive logging in Oregon’s Coast and Cascade Ranges. In 2011, the US Fish and Wildlife Service found that the species warranted listing under the federal Endangered Species Act, but declined to extend those protections in part due to regulatory protections on public federal forest lands.  Yet, in 2016, the Bureau of Land Management, which manages interspersed public lands in western Oregon eliminated protections for the species across 2.5-million acres of public forests it oversees.

“The red tree vole is already in a precarious position given the historic logging that occurred in Oregon over the past century,” said Nick Cady.  “And the recent elimination of protections for this species on BLM lands in Oregon places its future in jeopardy. The Forest Service must do all it can to ensure its survival and cancel reckless timber sales like Quartz.”

In its initial planning efforts for the Quartz timber sale, the Forest Service surveys documented little red tree vole activity and determined that the forests slated for logging were not good habitat.  Subsequent surveys conducted by volunteers with the Northwest Ecosystem Survey Team and verification surveys by the Forest Service resulted in seventy-five vole nest detections.  Despite this information, the Forest Service decided to proceed with the sale and destroy the vole nest sites.

“Red tree voles are closely linked with northern spotted owls,” said Reed Wilson with Benton Forest Coalition. “They have similar habitat requirements: old trees with cavities, structural defects and massive limbs suitable for nesting – exactly the kind of trees located throughout the Quartz timber sale by the Northwest Ecosystem Survey Team.”

 “The Forest Service seems determined to proceed with logging these beautiful forests regardless of the diligent efforts of citizens to document the presence of rare wildlife. First, the Forest Service said there were too few red tree voles to warrant protection. Later, the Forest Service said there were too many voles to warrant protection,” said Doug Heiken, conservation and restoration coordinator at Oregon Wild. “The poor red tree vole just can’t catch a break.”

This case is being brought by the Benton Forest Coalition, Cascadia Wildlands, and Oregon Wild.

The filed complaint can be found here.

(Red tree vole photos courtesy of Northwest Ecosystem Survey Team)

The post Press Release: Quartz Timber Sale Challenged Over Impacts to Red Tree Voles first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (314) 482-3746, nick@old.cascwild.org
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, (503) 484-7495, ngreenwald@biologicaldiversity.org

Oregon Board of Forestry Reverses Course, Will Develop Murrelet Protections

Rulemaking Initiated to Protect Imperiled Seabird on State, Private Lands

EUGENE, Ore.— The Oregon Board of Forestry has reversed its prior decision to deny a petition from conservation groups that called for the identification and protection of marbled murrelet sites on state and private forest lands. The Board is now coordinating with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and other state land owning agencies to identify and protect important old-growth forest areas for the seabird threatened with extinction.

“It is reassuring to see the Board reverse course on this issue, especially given Oregon’s current efforts to sell off the Elliott State Forest,” said Nick Cady, legal director of Cascadia Wildlands. “The Elliott is a unique block of old-growth forest that is critical to the survival and recovery of this species, and should be the first area prioritized by the Board.”

Murrelets fly inland from the ocean to nest on wide, mossy limbs found in in the mature and old-growth forests of the Oregon Coast Range.  While most of Oregon’s coast range has been converted into industrial timberland that does not provide nesting habitat for the bird, the 93,000-acre Elliott State Forest, located in the coast range just east of Coos Bay, is a crucial block of older forest habitat and essential to the reproductive success of the species.

”The marbled murrelet is the only seabird in the world that nests in old-growth forests and needs our help to survive,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “I’m thrilled Oregon’s Board of Forestry is finally stepping up to provide protections to this imperiled bird and the forests it depends on.”

The petition to the Board of Forestry was filed Sept. 9th in conjunction with a petition to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to uplist the species’ protection status from “threatened” to “endangered.” Given recent efforts by federal land managers to gut protections for the species and the substantial amount of habitat on state and private lands, the Department of Fish and Wildlife granted the petition, but the Board of Forestry denied its petition. After the Board’s denial, conservation groups filed a Petition for Review and asked the Board to reconsider its decision in light of requirements under Oregon law related to imperiled species.  The Board convened a special meeting on November 29, 2016 and stated it “withdraws and reverses its August 1, 2016 order denying the Petition for Rulemaking, accepts the Petition for Rulemaking, and immediately commences the rulemaking process.”

“Deforestation throughout the Coast Range have reduced habitat for marbled murrelets to just a few islands of old growth in a sea of clearcuts and monoculture tree plantations,” said Steve Pedery, conservation director for Oregon Wild. “Oregon is already decades overdue in developing a meaningful plan for conserving murrelet habitat. They cannot wait another 30 years.”

While murrelets have been listed as a ‘threatened’ species for nearly 30 years, Oregon has never developed a plan to recover them or protect the old-growth habitat that they depend on, and instead, the state has relied on the nesting habitat located on nearby federal forestlands. This is no longer sufficient as murrelet populations in the Pacific Northwest continue to decline, and a recent status review conducted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service determined that conservation of nesting habitat on state and private lands is now critical to the species’ survival.

The Petition to the Board of Forestry can be found here.

The post Oregon Board of Forestry Reverses Course, Will Develop Murrelet Protections first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.