Tag: press release

Press Release: Over 100 “Kayaktivists” and Community Members Protest Old-Growth Logging

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.

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: 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

Press Release: Court again forces feds to reconsider wolverine protections, this time using science

May 26, 2022 — Today, a federal judge invalidated a Trump administration decision denying protections to imperiled wolverines under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (original complaint here). This is the second time a court has rejected a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to deny protections for wolverines, which number only about 300 in the contiguous U.S. Today’s court order immediately reinstates wolverines’ “candidate” status as a species proposed for listing.

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. 

Press Release: Oregon Department of Forestry Moves Flawed Endangered Species Plan Forward 

March 17, 2022 — The Oregon Department of Forestry and the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a draft environmental impact statement today for a habitat conservation plan that regulates logging on more than 600,000 acres of state forest in western Oregon.  

The plan would allow the department to continue to log and harm endangered species, including coho and Chinook salmon, northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets and others, for 70 years in exchange for some habitat protection.  

Press Release: Victory for the Elliott State Forest!

March 3, 2022 — Today, the Oregon House of Representatives voted 50-8 to approve SB 1546 to create the Elliott State Research Forest and appropriate $121 million to decouple the 82,500-acre forest near Coos Bay from the Common School Fund (CSF). The vote follows the Oregon Senate’s approval of the legislation 22-4 on Tuesday.

Press Release: VICTORY! Wolves’ Endangered Species Status Restored

February 10, 2022 — Today, a federal court restored Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf after they were eliminated by the Trump administration in 2020. The ruling orders the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to resume recovery efforts for the imperiled species. Today’s decision redesignates the gray wolf as a species threatened with extinction in the lower 48 states with the exception of the Northern Rockies population (map), for which wolf protections were removed by Congress in 2011.