FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2022
Salem, Oregon —The Oregon Court of Appeals recently ruled against the proposal to mine TV Butte on the eastern edge of Oakridge, citing significant impacts blasting and industrial operations would have on resident deer and elk herds. The ruling was a major victory for Oakridge residents and local businesses who have long opposed the gravel mine proposed by Ed King III of King Estate Winery.
Cascadia Wildlands Statement on Eugene Water and Electric Board’s Recommendation to Decommission Leaburg Dam on the McKenzie River
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 7, 2023
Following two years of extensive research, analysis, and outreach, the Eugene Water and Electric Board’s (EWEB) General Manager and staff presented a recommendation to decommission and remove the Leaburg Hydroelectric Project and Dam at the December 6 Board of Commissioners meeting. In agreement with the recommendation, the Board directed EWEB staff to convert the recommendation to an action item for the Board to vote to approve early next year.
Press Release: Eugene City Council Hears Overwhelming Support for Healthy Homes Policy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 22, 2023
Eugene, OR — Over 100 community members rallied ahead of a Eugene City Council hearing last night to support the city’s proposed policy to phase out gas in new homes over climate and health concerns. At the rally, 63 people testified in support of the proposed ordinance, providing hours of testimony to the council about the benefits of electrification.
Press Release: Protestors Call Out Biden’s Mature and Old-Growth Logging Sales at Portland Forest Service Office
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2022
Portland, OR — Today, forest and climate activists gathered at Terry Schrunk Plaza across from the Forest Service Region 6 offices in support of stronger protections for mature and old-growth forests.
Press Release: U.S. Agencies Undermine Biden’s Public Forest Protection Pledge with Logging Plans, According to Report
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 14, 2023
EUGENE, OR — As world leaders gather to address the climate crisis, U.S. land management agencies are undermining President Joe Biden’s commitment to conserve mature and old-growth forests and trees by proposing to log thousands of acres on public lands that serve as climate-saving carbon sinks, as well as providing wildlife habitat and clean drinking water for communities.
Press Release: Forest Advocates Knock out Massive Trump Post-fire Logging Loophole
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2022
This month, conservation groups finalized a legal agreement with the Bureau of Land Management to reverse a Trump-era rule excluding vastly more logging in post-fire landscapes from detailed environmental review. The agreement resolves a legal challenge the groups brought against the agency in October, 2021.
Press Release: Over 100 “Kayaktivists” and Community Members Protest Old-Growth Logging
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2022
Leaburg, OREGON — Today, a “kayaktivist” flotilla of over 100 concerned community members rallied on the McKenzie River to protest an old-growth logging sale in the Willamette National Forest. The Flat Country project, proposed by the U.S. Forest Service, targets over 2,000 acres of old-growth and mature forests for logging across the headwaters of the McKenzie River. The agency could auction the old growth to be cut at any moment. Attendees held up signs from boats and kayaks, and unfurled a large banner declaring “Forest Defense is Watershed Defense”, to draw attention to the logging sale’s impact on downstream drinking water.
Press Release: Court Rules Logging Project Violates Endangered Species Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2022
Late Friday, a judge in the District Court for the District of Oregon ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) justification for Bureau of Land Management (Bureau) timber sales totaling nearly 18,000 acres including in old growth forest violated the Endangered Species Act. The judge ruled against the Service’s claim that old-growth logging in the Poor Windy and Evans Creek timber sales on 15,848 acres of threatened northern spotted owl habitat would not harm the imperiled bird species.
Opinion: Electrify Your Home to Benefit the Climate, Your Health and Your Wallet
by Bethany Cotton, Conservation Director for Cascadia Wildlands
Originally published in The Register-Guard, October 2, 2022.
If you are feeling helplessness about the state of the world, it’s understandable. In the past few weeks alone we have witnessed large swaths of Oregon blanketed by toxic air pollution yet again, hurricane Fiona leaving Puerto Rico without electricity and the Dominican Republic without drinkable water, one third of Pakistan still submerged by flood waters, four million people in Japan under evacuation and Alaska experiencing unprecedented flooding because of typhoons.
Press Release: Conservationists Challenge Coast Range Logging Plan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2022
Eugene, OR — Today, Oregon-based conservation organizations Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild challenged the Bureau of Land Management’s (“BLM”) Siuslaw Field Office’s plan to log 13,225 acres of public forests in the coast range foothills west of Eugene. The agency’s Siuslaw HLB (“Harvest Land Base”) Project will clearcut these mature and old-growth forests that border many communities and residences west of Eugene. The BLM admits that this logging will increase fire hazard risks, slope instability and landslide risks, and drinking water contamination for these communities, but dismissed concerns raised about these impacts as insignificant.