Tag: BLM

Press Release: Conservation Groups Challenge BLM’s “Big League” Logging Project Due to Impacts on Imperiled Spring Chinook Salmon Habitat and Other Values

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2023

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. 

Press Release: Conservationists Challenge BLM Clearcut of Endangered Species Habitat

Press Release: Conservationists Challenge BLM Clearcut of Endangered Species Habitat

Eugene, OR — Today, conservation groups challenged a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) logging project that would clearcut mature and old-growth forests and degrade protected wildlife habitat for endangered species. The Big Weekly Elk logging sale, proposed by the BLM’s Coos Bay District, includes logging over 3,500 acres of forest, including areas supposed to be set aside to protect marbled murrelets. 

Press Release: Legal Challenge to BLM’s Late Successional Reserve Logging Scheme

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April, 10, 2023

Medford, Oregon — Today a coalition of conservation organizations filed a legal complaint challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) “Integrated Vegetation Management” (IVM) program that would aggressively log forest stands located within Late Successional Reserves, areas purportedly set aside for forest conservation. In particular, IVM authorizes so-called “gap creation” and “open seral” logging prescriptions within mature and old-growth forests that are fire-resilient and provide important habitat at-risk wildlife species.

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.

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.

Press Release: Legal Warning Challenges Plan to Log Thousands of Acres of Oregon’s Old-Growth Forest Reserves

July 5, 2022 — A coalition of Oregon conservation organizations notified the Bureau of Land Management today it intends to sue the agency to protect marbled murrelets and coastal martens from a plan by the agency to log thousands of acres of old-growth forest in areas designated as late-successional reserves. The reserves were designated as part of the Northwest Forest Plan to protect the two threatened species, as well as hundreds of others.

WildCATs field checking the Windy Peak Unit in the N126 timber sale (photo by Anupam Katkar).

Press Release: Conservationists Challenge Logging Plan

May 26, 2022 — Late yesterday, Oregon-based conservation organizations Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild challenged the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Siuslaw Field Office’s plan to log public lands west of Eugene across seven watersheds. The agency’s “N126 Late Successional Reserve Landscape Plan Project” is one of the largest logging proposals on public lands in Oregon in decades. The targeted forests are home to at least three federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed species: northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and Oregon Coast coho salmon, along with the red tree vole, which is currently a candidate for ESA listing. The agency failed entirely to consider impacts to these species, amongst other errors. 

Local environmental group warns of lawsuit over BLM salvage harvest

By Adam Duvernay (RG Reporter)Originally published in The Register-Guard, August 15 A number of environmental groups have warned the Bureau of Land Management they intend to sue if changes aren’t made to … Continue reading Local environmental group warns of lawsuit over BLM salvage harvest

BLM approves 910-acre salvage harvest in Holiday Farm Fire area

by Adam Duvernay | The Register-GuardOriginally published June 3, 2021 The Bureau of Land Management has decided it will harvest trees from inside 910 acres scorched by the Holiday Farm … Continue reading BLM approves 910-acre salvage harvest in Holiday Farm Fire area