BLM proposes greatly increased timber harvest in Western Oregon

On February 19th, the Bureau of Land Management published a Notice of Intent to gut the management plans governing nearly 2.5 million acres of forests across 18 Oregon counties, including Lincoln County.

These forests include some of the last remaining low-elevation old-growth forests in Oregon, home to the northern spotted owl, the marbled murrelet, coho salmon, steelhead, and hundreds of other species.

Some of the places directly threatened by this proposal are: The Valley of the Giants. Mary’s Peak. Alsea Falls.

The proposal seeks to eliminate old-growth and wildlife protections to facilitate what the agency calls “maximum” logging capacity. One proposal is to accelerate timber harvest to approximately one billion board feet per year. That’s four times current levels, matching the peak production of the 1960s, before the Endangered Species Act.

The existing management plans were finalized in 2016. They took four years to develop, and balanced timber production with habitat protection, water quality, recreation, and the survival of species that federal law requires us to protect.

But in a recent executive order, President Donald J. Trump ordered the BLM and the USFS to issue new or updated guidance, requiring that all necessary steps be taken to suspend, revise, or rescind all existing regulations that “impose an undue burden on timber production.”

There have been no public meetings on this proposal, and in-person public hearings have not been scheduled.

The BLM has announced the public has until March 23^rd to submit comments on the plan through the bureau’s website at https://eplanning.blm.gov, through e-mail at Scoping@BLM.gov, or mailing to 1220 SW 3rd Ave., Portland OR, 97204.

Comments may be filed at the following link:

https://eplanning.blm.gov/Project-Home/?id=a591dee8-500c-f111-8406-001dd8029ed0&_gl=1*iqd7bs*_ga*OTQ4NTU0MDMyLjE3NzMwNzMxNDA.*_ga_GQKKTMMT8V*czE3NzMwNzMxNDAkbzEkZzEkdDE3NzMwNzU2NjgkajM0JGwwJGgw