Urgent: Speak up for Oregon's old-growth forests on chopping block
Priscilla Feral
Urgent: Speak up for Oregon’s old-growth forests that are on the chopping block
FoA has been in court trying to protect barred owls since the summer of 2013 when U.S. Fish and Wildlife started shooting barred owls as part of an “experiment” to save northern spotted owls. Then in 2024, the agency approved a senseless plan that allows the mass slaughter of 450,000 barred owls over the next 30 years in California, Washington and Oregon, again to protect northern spotted owls, and FoA filed a lawsuit to stop it.
Now the Bureau of Land Management has announced a plan to fell Oregon’s last great forests, the home that the northern spotted owl and other vulnerable species need to survive! Not to mention any sane person knows trees are worth more standing.
The plan is certifiable and needs to be stopped.
We need you to sound off immediately by submitting comments opposing the plan by the end of March 23. Scoping comments shape the alternatives the BLM is required to analyze in its Environmental Impact Statement.
You can submit a comment now:
- Online: ePlanning project page — click on the “Participate Now” in the upper left hand corner. It will take you to another page that provides a box to “enter your comment here”
- Via Email: BLM_OR_Revi...@blm.gov
- Or by Mail: Bureau of Land Management Oregon/Washington State Office, 1220 SW 3rd Avenue, Portland, OR 97204, Attn: Elizabeth Burghard, RMP Revision
BLM’s notice followed the Administration blowing up our relationship with Canada as a significant trade partner. Last September it signed a proclamation invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, imposing tariffs on imports of timber, lumber, and derivative wood products such as cabinets and furniture.
The clearcutting decision is reckless, and if enough people sound off on the insanity of this plan, BLM will have a harder time pretending these real concerns don’t exist when this ends up in court.
Speaking from the heart is effective, especially if you visit some of the places in the crosshairs, such as Alsea Falls, which provides over 12 miles of trails through untouched old-growth, lush forest landscapes along the South Fork Alsea River and Peak Creek, offering vistas of the gorgeous Alsea and Green Peak Falls.
Here are some points about what’s to lose:
•The government plans to use taxpayer money to continually kill federally protected barred owls for decades with no end in sight. Meanwhile the government continues to fall short when it comes to ethical and meaningful protection for northern spotted owls, such as listing the species as endangered and protecting sufficient habitat. The truth is logging companies’ economic interests in old-growth forests has historically been, and still is, the northern spotted owl’s greatest threat to survival, not barred owls.
• Large, mature forests like the low-elevation old-growth forests in Oregon are increasingly recognized for the crucial role they play in sequestering the carbon dioxide that is causing dangerous global warming. These particular forests in Oregon store more carbon per acre than any terrestrial ecosystem on the planet.
• In fall 2021, more than 200 climate scientists from around the country wrote a letter underscoring the consequences if timber harvesting continues in U.S. forests. They wrote that “greenhouse gas emissions from logging in U.S. forests are now comparable to the annual carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. coal burning.” Protecting federal forestlands from logging, on the other hand, would remove 84 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.
We’re sick of this administration damaging relationships with other countries to manufacture national and economic “emergencies” in an attempt to evade the law and exploit the environment. Please help us fight back.
Nicole Rivard
Editor-in-Chief
Media/Government Relations Manager
777 Post Rd. Ste. 205
Darien, CT 06820