Federal foresters have pushed back public meetings that will outline the future of national forests east of the Cascades.
The U.S. Forest Service had planned to hold a series of meetings about the Blue Mountains plan revision through December, but it has now rescheduled them for February and March, when it will publish more information on the Federal Register.
Management plans outline how national forests can be used, from grazing and logging to wilderness protections and wildfire restoration. They’re supposed to be revisited every 10 to 15 years to account for changing landscapes and new science.
Similar plans for western Oregon forests are being updated through the Northwest Forest Plan amendment, which covers habitats where endangered spotted owls can be found.
The Blue Mountains revision includes forest management plans for the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman national forests, which have been working from the same plans since 1990. These forests cover northeastern Oregon with parts bleeding into Idaho and Washington.
The Canyon Creek Complex fire burned more than 110,000 acres, much of it in the Malheur National Forest, sparking a debate between loggers and environmentalists over whether to log the burned trees. Revisions to the forest's management plan could include stipulations for salvage logging.
Brandon Swanson
The Forest Service first pitched a Blue Mountains revision in 2014, but that draft received so much backlash that the agency spent another few years doing public outreach, according to reporting by EO Media Group.
Forestry officials published another draft in 2018, but pulled the plug the following year after it received more backlash. Public commenters raised an array of concerns, ranging from worries it would limit grazing to objections about potential logging impacts on streams and wildlife.
Now the Forest Service has started another attempt from scratch, which it first announced in 2023. Starting next February, the agency will host virtual and in-person meetings around Eastern Oregon to review a list of vulnerable species and wildlands that could see some additional protections.
The agency plans to publish a draft plan in about a year, then complete the revision by 2027.