For immediate releaseNovember 14, 2022 Contact:Madeline Cowen, Cascadia Wildlands, 206-653-4959Randi Spivak, Center for Biological Diversity, (310) 779-4894 EUGENE, OR – As world leaders gather to address the climate crisis, U.S. … Continue reading Press Release: U.S. Agencies Undermine Biden’s Public Forest Protection Pledge with Logging Plans, According to Report
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.
Opinion: Rewilding the West with wolves and beavers will curb climate change
by Bethany Cotton, Conservation Director for Cascadia Wildlands
Originally published in The Register-Guard, August 28, 2022.
As the Western U.S. again endures record-breaking summer heat and enters our third decade of drought, it’s time for us to adopt bold, regionwide solutions that will support climate-resilient communities, safeguard drinking water sources, reduce wildfire risk, protect remaining mature and old-growth forests and enhance wildlife habitat.
In the Media: Oregon lawmakers, groups demand investigation over NW Natural’s gas claims
by Monica Samayoa (OPB). Originally published on OPB.org, Aug. 17, 2022 7:19 p.m.
More than two dozen organizations along with Oregon lawmakers are calling on the state’s Department of Justice to investigate Oregon’s largest natural gas utility over what they claim is false advertising to the public and in schools.
Press Release: Mature and old-growth logging sale undermines Biden climate policy; threatens McKenzie River, habitat
August 2, 2022 — Today, old-growth forest and wildlife advocates provided the U.S. Forest Service the means to reconsider the pending Trump-era “Flat Country” timber sale in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest. The vast majority of the proposed logging would be in mature and old-growth forests, with over 1,000 acres of clearcutting, even though President Biden this year ordered his administration to prioritize conserving these forests as a crucial climate protection.
Opinion: SCOTUS is turning up the heat on climate change
by Bethany Cotton, Conservation Director for Cascadia Wildlands
Originally published in The Register-Guard, July 31, 2022.
Adequately describing just how destructive the last 10 days of the Supreme Court’s term was for our democracy, constitutional rights and the work to address and adapt to climate change is a murky task. The court’s disastrous spring term makes several things clear, not least of which is that we cannot rely on a group of nine people in robes to save our democracy or our climate. Indeed, the court has morphed into one of the greatest threats to civil rights and a livable future.
Press Release: Eugene City Council Advances Policy to Transition New Construction to All-Electric, Sets Ambitious Targets for Decarbonizing Existing Buildings
July 27, 2022 — In a major step toward a clean energy future, the Eugene City Council voted today to move forward with a suite of measures advancing the transition off of gas in homes and buildings. The motions include one directing staff to draft ordinance language to mandate that all new homes be constructed 100% electric by June 1, 2023; a second advancing conversations to transition new commercial and industrial construction to require all electric; and a third directing the City Manager
Opinion: NW Natural’s campaign reeks of desperation
by Bethany Cotton, Conservation Director for Cascadia Wildlands
Originally published in The Register-Guard, May 27, 2022.
NW Natural is running full page ads in this paper co-opting the word “choice” while half of our country’s population is facing the impending loss of a fundamental constitutional right. The company, like others wedded to climate-destroying fossil fuels, knows that the future is bleak for its dangerous product, so it is behaving like the dying industry it is by employing increasingly desperate rhetoric.
Opinion: Biden’s old-growth forest executive order has giant hole
by Bethany Cotton, Conservation Director for Cascadia Wildlands
Originally published in The Register-Guard, May 1, 2022.
Last month, in honor of Earth Day, President Biden signed an executive order on Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies. While the EO represents progress in its acknowledgement that old-growth and mature forests are essential bulwarks against the worst impacts of climate change, its stated commitment to science-based management, and its inclusion of indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge as key to sustainable forest management, it does not — yet — actually safeguard the last of these forests here at home.