Defending our Wildest Landscapes

last updated July 31, 2026

Communities and conservation organizations are working together to protect some of our wildest landscapes. Photo by Bonnie Moreland.

The future of nearly 5 million acres of public lands is being decided through a major U.S. Forest Service planning process, and the outcome will shape these landscapes for decades to come.

We have been preparing for this moment for a long time. The Trump administration has made clear that it wants to expand logging, mining, and grazing on public lands while rolling back environmental protections. Now that the U.S. Forest Service has released its latest draft plan for the Blue Mountains Forest Plans, it’s time for conservation organizations and communities to get engaged and advocate for our wild places.

Crag is proud to work with the Eastside Forest Coalition as they advocate to ensure these forests continue to provide clean water, healthy wildlife habitat, outdoor recreation, and resilient ecosystems for future generations.

The Eastside Forest Coalition (EFC) is a broad coalition of conservation organizations, including some of our long-time partners and clients Oregon Wild, WildEarth Guardians, Greater Hells Canyon Council, Sierra Club and Great Old Broads for Wilderness. We are advising the EFC during this process to help them advocate for stronger protections for forests, wildlife, and public lands across eastern Oregon and southeastern Washington.

The U.S. Forest Service is deciding how these landscapes will be managed for decades to come. Photo of Magone Lake in Malheur National Forest by Chandra LeGue.

What’s happening?

The U.S. Forest Service announced it is revising the Blue Mountains Forest Plans, which cover the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests. These plans guide how the forests will be managed, influencing decisions about logging, wildlife habitat, recreation, mining, grazing, wildfire resilience, and clean water.

Together, these forests encompass nearly 5 million acres of public lands across eastern Oregon and southeastern Washington, including iconic places like the Wallowa Mountains, Joseph Canyon, the North Fork John Day River, the Elkhorn Crest, Anthony Lakes, and the Malheur Canyons.

Because forest plans provide the long-term blueprint for managing public lands, the decisions made today will influence these forests, rivers, and grasslands—and the communities and wildlife that depend on them—for decades.

The Blue Mountains are home to forests, rivers, wildlife, and communities that depend on healthy public lands. Photos by Chandra LeGue.

Why are environmental advocates concerned?

The Forest Service’s Draft Plans propose major changes to how these public lands would be managed. Our clients in the Eastside Forest Coalition are concerned that the preferred alternative would weaken important protections while prioritizing increased logging, mining, and grazing.

The Trump Administration’s Blue Mountains proposal would:

• • Triple commercial logging across the three national forests.
  • Eliminate the 21-inch rule that protects large old trees
  • Reduce protection for riparian areas to allow more logging and grazing
  • Eliminate protections for more than 721,000 acres of inventoried roadless areas.
  • Remove habitat protections that help support wildlife such as elk, salmon, wolves, wolverines, moose, and great gray owls.
  • Reduce protections for rivers that may qualify for Wild and Scenic River designation.

The Eastside Forest Coalition believes the Forest Service can better balance forest restoration, wildfire resilience, wildlife habitat, clean water, recreation, and sustainable forest management without rolling back these longstanding protections.

The Blue Mountains provide habitat for salmon, wolves, moose, owls, wolverines, elk, and countless other species. Owl Photo by Andrey Gulivanov, Elk photo by Fred Renspies, CC BY 2.0. 

What We’re Doing

Throughout the Forest Service’s planning process, our attorneys are helping coordinate the coalition’s advocacy and are helping prepare comprehensive comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. We are working to ensure the Forest Service follows environmental laws, uses the best available science, and fully considers how its decisions could affect these public lands and the people who depend on them.

Here’s a tree marked as a boundary of a timber sale area in Malheur National Forest. Photo by Chandra LeGue.

What’s next?

The Forest Service is accepting public comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement through the end of September 2026.

Over the coming months, Crag will work alongside coalition members to submit detailed legal and scientific comments identifying concerns with the proposal and recommending stronger protections for these forests, rivers and mountains, and the species that depend on them. After reviewing public comments, the Forest Service will decide whether to revise the proposal before issuing final forest plans.

Why this Matters

The Blue Mountains are home to some of the Pacific Northwest’s most remarkable public lands. These forests provide habitat for elk, salmon, wolves, moose, wolverines, great gray owls, and countless other species. They also support hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, and other outdoor recreation that people across the Northwest enjoy.

Forest plans don’t often make headlines, but they are among the most important decisions affecting our public lands because they establish the framework for how these landscapes will be managed for decades.

Photo of Crag attorneys Oliver and Meriel with Crag 2023 Summer interns Olivia, Fiona, and Nathan. 

Our Partners

Crag is proud to advise the members of the Eastside Forest Coalition, which includes Oregon Wild, Greater Hells Canyon Council, WildEarth Guardians, Sierra Club Juniper Group, Central Oregon LandWatch, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Western Watersheds Project, and Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project.

Learn More

To learn more about the Blue Mountains forest plan revision, visit these resources from the coalition partners:

• • Oregon Wild: Forest Service plan opens Oregon’s wildest landscapes and protected areas to old-growth logging and development
  • Greater Hells Canyon Council: Protecting Public Lands

You can also read recent media coverage:

• • OPB: As Trump focuses on timber in the Blue Mountains, elk hunters fear habitat could diminish | New draft plan for logging in Oregon’s Blue Mountains goes public
  • Moscow-Pullman Daily News: Draft plan for Blue Mountains triples logging targets
  • Elkhorn Media Group: Public comment period on Blue Mountain Forest Plan is now open
  • Baker City Herald/EO Media: Blue Mountain Forest Plan revision draft study coming July 2
  • Oregon Capital Chronicle: Public invited to comment on plan to possibly triple logging in eastern Oregon national forests

Crag is proud to work with the Eastside Forest Coalition as they advocate to ensure these forests continue to provide clean water, healthy wildlife habitat, outdoor recreation, and resilient ecosystems for future generations. Photo of Crag attorneys Oliver and Meriel with some of our longtime conservation clients in Pendleton, Oregon.