by Henry Houston
Originally published by EugeneWeekly.com on January 12, 2023
The U.S. Forest Service ended 2022 with a decision that local environmentalists are celebrating.
The federal agency decided to withdraw its plans for the Flat Country timber sale, which would have affected some more than 100-year-old trees in a nearly 75,000 acre project area in the Willamette National Forest near McKenzie Bridge.
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.
SIGN-UP HERE The Flat Country timber sale encompasses the headwaters of the McKenzie River, where many Oregonians in the Willamette Valley source their drinking water. The proposed timber sale, which … Continue reading Join Us for a Fall Equinox Hike in the Flat Country Timber Sale — Thurs. Sept 22, 2022
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.
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.
Retired forestry professors, an environmental group and a lawmaker speak out on a proposed logging of mature forestland by Henry HoustonOriginally published in Eugene Weekly, May 13, 2021 During a … Continue reading Flattening a Forest
By Jerry F. Franklin and K. Norman Johnson | Guest OpinionOriginally published in The Register-Guard April 27, 2021 Almost 20 years ago, the U.S. Forest Service essentially stopped logging older … Continue reading Protect older natural forests in the western Cascades
By Courtney Kaltenbach Field Checking Intern for Cascadia Wildlands, Spring 2020 On a cool Saturday morning, over twenty people met in the Cascadia parking lot to prepare to go out … Continue reading INTERN-al UPDATE: A Snowy Field Check in Flat Country
Flat Country — Willamette National Forest, McKenzie Ranger District UPDATE: Early in 2022, in honor of Earth Day, President Biden signed an executive order (EO) on Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, … Continue reading Flat Country Timber Sale
