By Gabe Scott Cascadia Wildlands In-house Counsel We’ve been keeping our eyes on the forests during the Pandemic. The crisis and response is revealing hidden priorities, shifting alliances, and revealing inequities. The public land agencies, the Forest Service and BLM, and the State governments, have been closing recreation, canceling restoration, and moving forward with logging … Continue reading FIELD REPORT / BLOG: In the Forest in the Age of COVID-19
by Gabe Scott, In-house Counsel November 5, 2019 It is a lot of fun to be part of a movement. A phenomenal community of people have been coming together in the forests of the BLM’s Umpqua Sweets timber project. This past weekend I joined a group of Roseburg locals for a hike organized by Instagram artist … Continue reading Umpqua Sweets Chronicles Vol 4 – Community
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages over 2.6 million acres of public forests in western Oregon and has recently undertaken efforts to revise all of its forest plans. These plans aim to dramatically increase timber harvests by 60% and ressurect the archaic practices of clearcutting older forests. The draft of the proposed plan … Continue reading Last Chance to Comment on BLM’s Western Oregon Plan Revision
June 12, 2015 — A logging industry lawsuit that sought to force the Bureau of Land Management to increase logging on public lands in southwest Oregon was thrown out today by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling vacates a 2013 decision that would have forced the Bureau of Land Management to sell timber even when those sales would have harmed salmon and had detrimental impacts on water quality and recreation.
By Nick Cady, Legal Director The conservation community in the Northwest was incredibly excited by Cascadia’s legal victory over the White Castle timber sale. Not just because of the couple hundred acres of old growth forest that were saved from clearcutting, but because of the potentially important precedent the case set concerning logging old … Continue reading Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: The Abuse of “Ecological Forestry” on our Public Lands in Western Oregon
March 23, 2015 — Public opposition and a legal challenge from Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild has prompted the Eugene Bureau of Land Management to place on hold its plans to clearcut 259 acres of public lands just outside of Springfield, Oregon near Shotgun Creek. The “Second Show” timber sale would have been the largest clearcut on federal lands in Lane County in 20 years.
March 17, 2015 — A US District Court judge has ruled in favor of conservation groups Oregon Wild and Cascadia Wildlands in their legal challenge of a controversial clearcut logging project on public lands in Douglas County. At stake in the case was the Bureau of Land Management’s “White Castle” logging project which proposed clearcutting 160 aces of 100-year old trees using a controversial methodology developed by Drs. Jerry Franklin and Norm Johnson referred to as “variable retention regeneration harvest” sometimes referred to as “eco-forestry.” In her ruling, Judge Ann Aiken found that the BLM’s environmental review fell far short of fully considering the full range of harm that could result from clearcutting.
By Francis Eatherington During the week of June 16, representatives of Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, and KS Wild traveled to Washington DC to discuss two bills, one from Senator Wyden and one from Representative DeFazio. Both mandate an increase of logging on western Oregon BLM lands. We had over 21 meetings with agency staff, senators … Continue reading A Trip to Washington DC
February 27, 2014 — Earlier this week, neighboring landowners discovered a mudslide in the “experimental” Buck Rising clearcut logging project on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Douglas
County. The type of clearcutting used in the project has been the model for US Senator Ron Wyden’s plan to double logging levels on O&C lands in Western Oregon.
The Bureau of Land Management will be holding a series of public meetings to discuss potential changes to the Resource Management Plans for BLM forest lands in Western Oregon. These important meeting are billed as opportunities for the public to provide input about their desires and provide feedback on proposal elements. Please find your city below … Continue reading BLM Announces More Meetings on Resource Management Plan Revision
