VICTORY AGAINST HUGE, MISGUIDED OREGON LOGGING PROJECT!

This spring, we obtuvo una victoria importante against a controversial public lands logging plan. The “N126” project threatened a wide expanse of mature forest stretching west of Eugene into the steep slopes of the Oregon Coast Range, an area providing vital habitat for at least three threatened wildlife species: northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and Oregon Coast coho salmon. The project was one of the largest such logging proposals in decades, targeting 22,000 acres of public land, including cherished old-growth groves. 

This Bureau of Land Management project recklessly authorized massive logging primarily in late-successional reserves—areas intended to serve as sanctuary habitat for federally protected species including the threatened northern spotted owl. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already determined, in response to our 2020 legal challenge, that “spotty” warrants uplisting to endangered status, making the protection of these forests all the more imperative. Additionally, the project authorized commercial logging on more than 2,000 acres of riparian reserves, which are meant to protect the life-giving streams that maintain water quality for fish, wildlife, and people alike. 

In its haste to approve the project, the agency dismissed dozens of critical environmental issues from consideration, glossed over significant impacts to protected fish and wildlife, and failed entirely to consider the cumulative impacts from other overlapping and adjacent federal logging projects.  

BLM’s decision-making lacked public transparency as to the full scope of its plan, but the details it did disclose elicited outrage—in particular its plan for extensive roadbuilding. The project greenlit a staggering 350–510 miles of road construction and renovation, a web of infrastructure that would have scarred the landscape and funneled sediment into salmon-bearing streams. 

The court ruled that the heavy logging and extensive road building and renovation involved significant and largely unanalyzed impacts in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. 

Following the court’s decision, we reached a legal agreement with the BLM that achieved significant, lasting protections for the area. The agency agreed to correct the legal violations in the project’s environmental assessment and will not authorize any additional timber sales under the flawed analysis. While a few already-contracted timber sales were unavoidable, we secured excellent safeguards for the remaining forest.  

The settlement secures both legal accountability and lasting forest protections—a big win for public lands in the region.

Our original complaint is available aquí. The court’s order is available aquí.