Stopping Destructive Logging: Western Oregon BLM Campaign
Over the past few years, Oregon's Coos Bay, Medford and Roseburg districts of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have become ground zero for old-growth logging in the country. Trees six feet wide, 400 years old and 200 feet tall continue to be auctioned from public land to the highest bidder.
These low-elevation temperate forests provide a critical habitat linkage and genetic flow between the Cascade Mountains to the east, the Siskiyou Mountains to the south and west, and the coastal rainforests in northwest Oregon. Leading conservation biologists urge that protecting remaining fragments of old-growth forest on southwestern Oregon BLM lands is crucial to the survival of a number of threatened and endangered species including Pacific fisher, northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet and several wild salmon runs.
Ominously, a legal settlement between the timber industry and the Bush administration requires the BLM to consider opening up old-growth and streamside reserves on public land controlled by the 1937 Oregon and California (O&C) Act. This proposal, called Western Oregon Plan Revision (WOPR), would effectively remove western Oregon BLM lands from the landmark 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, which put forward a landscape management strategy based on science to prevent extinction of northern spotted owl and other species that rely on older forest habitat. Check out photos of the BLM forests slated to be clearcut under WOPR.
The Cascadia Wildlands Project is working closely with conservation allies to halt the BLM's destructive plans. For more information on the BLM revisions and ways you can help, visit our coalition website, www.oregonheritageforests.org. Please use the below resources to become familiar with the implications of the WOPR and to take action.
Recent Updates
August 4, 2009: Cascadia Wildlands and allies send the Department of Interior a letter about 13,000 acres of pending older forest timber sales unaffected by WOPR in southwest Oregon.
July 16, 2009: The Obama Administration scraps the WOPR and reinstates protections of the Northwest Forest Plan. This is a major victory for American who cherish older forests and the species that rely on them for their survival.
January 2009: Cascadia Wildlands and conservation allies file suit to and a 60-day notice to stop the WOPR and safeguard older forerests and waterways in western Oregon.
December 2008: Governor Kulongoski issues a press release opposing WOPR.
March 2008: Government scientists author scathing review of WOPR DEIS.
January 11, 2008: Bureau of Land Management Closes Comment Period for the Western Oregon Plan Revision (WOPR). What's Next?
On January 11, the BLM closed the comment period for the Western Oregon Plan Revision, the proposal that will drastically reduce protections for old-growth and streamside reserves across 2.5 million acres of low elevation public forest in Western Oregon. For the next few months, the agency will digest public comment and will then issue a final Environmental Impact Statement and Records of Decision for the six BLM districts at issue (Salem, Eugene, Roseburg, Coos Bay, Medford and the Klamath Falls Reseource Area of the Lakeview BLM). You can read a copy of the plan on the BLM's website.
WOPR resources:
1. Citizen's Guide to the Western Oregon Plan Revision
2. Analysis of the WOPR by the Oregon Heritage Forest Campaign
3. Summary of the WOPR by the National Center for Conservation, Sciency and Policy
4. Letter from our coalition to Governor Kulongoski's office about WOPR
5. Eugene City Council Resolution Opposing WOPR (1/28/08)
6. Government scientists' review of the WOPR Draft Environmental Impact Statement (3/08)
7. Photos of Salem BLM's First WOPR Timber Sale: Ginger Creek Project
