Tag: marbled murrelet

Press Release: Ninth Circuit Upholds Conservationists’ Efforts to Stop Coastal Old-Growth Logging

June 26, 2024 — Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2022 ruling from the District Court of Oregon that prevents Scott Timber Co. from clearcutting old-growth forest within Oregon’s Elliott State Forest. The court held that the proposed logging of the 355-acre Benson Ridge parcel by the subsidiary of Roseburg Forest Products would harm threatened marbled murrelets in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. The case marks the first time a private timber company has been held to account in court for potential violations of the federal Endangered Species Act in Oregon.

Press Release: Letter Calls on Gov. Kotek to Protect Old-Growth Forests, Cook Creek Watershed

November 14, 2023 — Eleven conservation groups today sent a letter calling on Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and the Board of Forestry to protect additional acres of forest lands in the proposed Western Oregon State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan. Their proposed increase in protected mature and old-growth forest land would help safeguard imperiled species like the threatened Oregon Coast coho salmon and marbled murrelet.

Press Release: FEMA Pulls Oregon Logging Road Funding In Response to Lawsuit

July 18, 2023 — In response to a lawsuit Monday by the Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has pulled its authorization of federal disaster relief funding to rebuild Cook Creek Road. The road would have been used for logging in Oregon’s Tillamook State Forest.

Press Release: Lawsuit Challenges FEMA-Funded Logging Road in Oregon’s Coast Range

July 17, 2023 — The Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for authorizing federal disaster relief funding to rebuild Cook Creek Road, a logging road in Oregon’s Tillamook State Forest.

Press Release: Lawsuit Launched Against Road Reopening in Oregon’s Tillamook State Forest

May 8, 2023 — The Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands filed a notice of intent today to sue the Federal Emergency Management Agency for funding the reopening of Cook Creek Road in the Oregon Coast Range.

Press Release: Conservationists Challenge Coast Range Logging Plan 

September 8, 2022 — 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.

Press Release: Court Halts Logging of Elliott State Forest Tract Sold to Private Timber Company

June 28, 2022 — Today, a U.S. District Court judge issued a ruling preventing Scott Timber from clearcutting old growth forest previously part of the Elliott State Forest. The court found that the proposed logging of the “Benson Ridge” parcel by the subsidiary of Roseburg Forest Products would harm and harass threatened marbled murrelets, in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. The court’s ruling permanently enjoins logging of the occupied murrelet habitat.

BLOG: Legal Interns Set Sights on the Murrelet

By Elie Steinberg & Marty Farrell, 2021 Summer Legal Interns In a time where billionaires set their sights toward the stars (or rather, just outside of earth’s atmosphere), we set our sights closer to home, towards the mossy branches of Oregon’s coastal mature and old-growth forests. On the branches of these forests, the marbled murrelet, … Continue reading BLOG: Legal Interns Set Sights on the Murrelet