FILE - Old-growth Douglas fir trees stand along the Salmon River Trail, June 25, 2004, in Mt. Hood National Forest outside Zigzag, Ore. There are plans by the BLM to cut downsome trees similar to these in Ore. for timber.
Rick Bowmer / AP
The protest against the Yellow Panther timber sale was originally set for Tuesday, March 25, but the auction was postponed till late April.
This timber sale is part of the Blue and Gold project, a controversial timber harvest plan approved last year by the federal Bureau of Land Management.
Madeline Cowen from the environmental non-profit Cascadia Wildlands said this timber harvest was pushed through during the Biden Administration.
“Despite what the federal government was saying about mature and old-growth forests on public lands and the need to protect them, the agency still went ahead and re-released this environmental assessment,” Cowen said.
She said that this project is particularly important because of how much logging is planned for old-growth forests. Her group claims that some of the tree groves proposed for logging are over 600 years old and provide important habitat for threatened and endangered species, such as the northern spotted owl.
Cowen’s group filed a lawsuit against the BLM regarding this project, and just last month, the BLM agreed to notify the conservation group 30 days in advance of any logging on future projects before a court hearing set for the fall.
That was done to avoid the conservation groups involved from having to file an injunction to stop the project completely. But, the Yellow Panther timber sale scheduled for April and two previous sales are exempt from this requirement.
Cowen said these sales are in less controversial areas than other parts of the Blue and Gold project.
She said they’re holding a protest in Roseburg on the same day as the timber sale to shine a light on the damage they believe this project is doing to these centuries-old forests.
Roman Battaglia is a reporter with Jefferson Public Radio. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.
