Win for coast range forests

last updated May 8, 2025

Grasshopper Overlook photo by Helena Virga

Victory! With our partners Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild, Crag successfully challenged an aggressive, multi-decade logging plan targeting over 13,000 acres of public forest in the coast range near communities west of Eugene. Photo of the logging project area by Doug Heiken, Oregon Wild.

Court rejects clearcutting project for failing to consider harm to ecosystems and failing to follow required environmental review processes

Along with long-time clients and partners Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild, Crag secured an important victory stopping an aggressive project in coast range forests.

A juvenile Pacific lamprey stranded in the mud in Winchester Reservoir. (Bob Hoehne, courtesy of Native Fish Society)

We will continue to hold the line against these unlawful logging projects and stand up to fight for local forests important to our communities! Photo of Crag attorney Oliver Stiefel in front of an old growth tree by Megan Gleason.

Last month, a federal court rejected the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) controversial Siuslaw Harvest Land Base (HLB) Project – an aggressive, multi-decade logging plan targeting over 13,000 acres of public forest in the Coast Range near communities west of Eugene. The court held that the agency’s logging plan violated critical environmental review requirements.

 

”This is an exciting victory. The court offered a strong rebuke of the agency’s shell-game analysis,” shared Crag attorney Oliver Stiefel. 

Background

We brought this lawsuit in September 2022, arguing that the BLM ignored the project’s potential impacts on soils, drinking water, invasive weeds, and threatened wildlife. We also raised concerns about the cumulative effects of the Siuslaw HLB Project and other overlapping BLM projects that would affect the same sensitive resources. After securing an early win in the case, where the court affirmed our right to have our day in court, the court issued the final opinion and order on April 30, 2025–a sweeping ruling in our favor.

The Siuslaw HLB Project sought to log 13,225 acres of public forests in the Coast Range foothills. The BLM’s own planning documents acknowledged that the project would increase spread of invasive weeds, decrease slope stability and destroy soil health, and risked serious harm to numerous protected species (including special status, bureau sensitive, or endangered species). In its environmental review documents, however, the agency dismissed these risks as insignificant.

A juvenile Pacific lamprey stranded in the mud in Winchester Reservoir. (Bob Hoehne, courtesy of Native Fish Society)
A juvenile Pacific lamprey stranded in the mud in Winchester Reservoir. (Bob Hoehne, courtesy of Native Fish Society)
A juvenile Pacific lamprey stranded in the mud in Winchester Reservoir. (Bob Hoehne, courtesy of Native Fish Society)

The Siuslaw logging project would have clearcut mature and old growth forests that are home to at least four species protected by the Endangered Species Act, including northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and Chinook and Oregon Coast coho salmon. Photos by US Forest Service, Brett Lovelace (license here), and Roger Tabor, USFWS.

Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai found that the BLM did not take the legally required “hard look” at the environmental impacts. Because the agency made a critical decision to act, with no further environmental review or public involvement required, it was obligated to fully evaluate “site-specific” environmental impacts. Instead of this required analysis, the agency (1) pointed to earlier environmental review documents that were programmatic and coarse-scale, and (2) relied on possible future mitigation measures. The court held that the agency’s approach violated federal law.

“The court offered a strong rebuke of the agency’s shell-game analysis. The Bureau of Land Management refused to analyze impacts to key issues like sensitive soils, imperiled species, and invasive species, claiming that such impacts were either already addressed or would be in the future. But in truth, the agency’s approach meant that these critical issues would never be addressed in the manner that the law requires.”

– Oliver Stiefel, Crag Senior Staff Attorney 

Our clients also shared why this win is so important and why we continue to hold the line against agencies’ radical new attempts to increase logging on public lands while decreasing public involvement and environmental review.

“The Bureau of Land Management routinely disregards the serious risks that many of their logging projects impose. We lose valuable, rare ecosystems and with it, wildfire resilience and drinking water quality, every time these mature forests are irresponsibly logged.”

– Nick Cady, Legal Director for Cascadia Wildlands

“Whether it’s due to poor analysis or attempts to log old-growth trees for profit, the courts continue to reject the BLM’s unlawful logging projects. Clearcutting public lands, destroying wildlife habitat, endangering local communities — this is exactly the type of logging President Trump and his allies are now pushing on a larger scale. It’s not legal, it’s not what the public wants, and we’re going to keep fighting it.”

– John Persell, Staff Attorney for Oregon Wild.

Local residents voiced strong opposition to the Siuslaw HLB Project, citing risks such as drinking water contamination, increased wildfire hazards, soil erosion, invasive species introduction and the destruction of wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities. The agency was unfazed by these concerns. It is encouraging to see federal courts in Oregon recognizing the problems associated with poor environmental analysis and serious risks those shortfalls pose to our forests.

Many of the local residents strongly oppose the project because they are concerned about the contamination of their drinking water, increases in fire hazard, loss of recreation opportunities, soil erosion and stability, further road construction, and the destruction of habitat that the logging may cause. Photo of hikers in the Siuslaw National Forest by USFS.

Looking ahead

We are celebrating knowing that these destructive plans are stopped in court. While we wait to see if the agency will appeal, we will continue to hold the line against these unlawful logging projects and stand up to fight for local forests important to our communities!

Our Clients

Cascadia Wildlands defends and restores Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. The Eugene-based organization envisions vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia bioregion.

Oregon Wild’s mission is to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and water as an enduring legacy. Oregon Wild is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year.

 

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