PORTLAND, OR — A budget reconciliation proposal introduced by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, would force the sale of up to 3.2 million acres of public lands across the West, including in Oregon. The bill, released last night, includes a provision requiring both the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to sell off public lands to offset tax cuts and other budgetary expenses (see pg. 30 of the bill).

The minimum land affected would exceed the size of Rhode Island and Delaware together. Oregon is explicitly listed as an eligible state where lands would be sold off. 

Recent polling shows 76% of Oregonians oppose selling public lands to pay for an extension of Trump’s tax cuts.

“Public lands belong to everyone. They shouldn’t be pawned off to offset tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy,” said Quinn Read, Executive Director at Oregon Wild. “This bill opens the door to selling off some of Oregon’s most treasured landscapes, potentially turning national forest edges into luxury estates with no real requirements for affordability or community benefit.”

While the bill is framed as a housing initiative, its primary function is to generate revenue. The legislation includes no safeguards to ensure the lands are used for workforce or affordable housing. Vague legislative language leaves room for high-end development on ecologically important and wildfire-prone lands.

An analysis from Headwaters Economics showed that the policy of selling off public lands for housing is complicated by wildfire and drought risks, as well as other development challenges. 

“This proposal is deeply unpopular, risky, and short-sighted,” continued Read. “Especially in places like Bend, expanding development deeper into fire-prone public lands doesn’t just damage habitat and recreation, it puts communities at greater risk.”

Just weeks ago, a proposal to sell off public lands in Utah and Nevada was stripped from the House version of the budget reconciliation bill after bipartisan backlash. Oregon Reps. Val Hoyle and Andrea Salinas voted against that amendment; Rep. Cliff Bentz voted in favor.

The post Oregon Public Land Sell-Off Included in Senate Budget Proposal appeared first on Oregon Wild.

Key findings include:

• 76% of Oregonians—including 61% of rural residents—oppose selling off public lands to finance tax cuts. This comes as House Republicans recently advanced a proposal to sell hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Utah and Nevada. Oregon Representatives Maxine Dexter and Val Hoyle voted against the amendment in the House Natural Resources Committee, with Cliff Bentz voting for it.
  
  
• 74% believe the federal government should focus forest management on thinning small trees near homes and emergency services, rather than large-scale commercial logging. Both state and federal policy heavily subsidize logging lucrative large trees in the backcountry in the name of ‘fire preparedness’ over more effective ways to safeguard lives and communities.
  
  
• 72% support more protections for mature and old-growth forests. Over 1 million public comments were submitted nationally in favor of stronger safeguards during the Biden administration, but efforts have been stalled by U.S. Forest Service leadership.
  
  
• 67% opposed changing Endangered Species Act protections to remove habitat destruction from the definition of “harm” to wildlife. Right now, the law recognizes that “harm” includes not just directly killing or capturing wildlife—but also habitat destruction that makes it impossible for a species to feed, breed, or shelter.
  
  
• 67% oppose logging projects up to 10,000 acres in size without environmental review or public input—a controversial provision in the Fix Our Forests Act, which passed the U.S. House earlier this year and faces a Senate hearing soon.
  
  Senator Ron Wyden has notably commented that the Fix Our Forests Act  “…undermines bedrock environmental laws, and would allow poorly designed, large commercial projects that threaten community drinking water, wildlife and recreation opportunities to proceed with inadequate environmental review.”
  
  
• 65% oppose layoffs of public lands agency employees. The Trump administration has threatened additional “reduction in force” orders that put our public lands and communities at risk.

These views stand in stark contrast to the environmental policies promoted under President Trump and some Oregon lawmakers, including executive orders that placed logging above conservation.

“This poll affirms, once again, that Oregonians overwhelmingly favor policies that protect clean water, wildlife, and public lands for current and future generations—and reject partisan efforts to gut environmental safeguards,” said Oregon Wild spokesperson Arran Robertson.

The post Poll: Oregonians Oppose Trump’s Plans for Public Lands and the Environment appeared first on Oregon Wild.

WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senators John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) introduced the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA). In a giveaway to the timber industry, the bill – which is presented as a measure against wildfire – could open the door to unlimited logging across millions of acres of national forests, undermining bedrock environmental and public health laws. House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) introduced companion legislation that passed the House in January 2025. 

The Senate version of FOFA arrived less than a week after President Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, issued a memo that begins implementation of President Trump’s March 1 executive order to ramp up logging across over half of national forests. FOFA and Trump’s logging directives would both erode environmental laws and make it harder for members of the public to weigh in on government decisions, all of which could devastate forest health.

If passed, FOFA would allow logging on federal lands without scientific review and community input. The bill truncates ESA consultation requirements to protect threatened and endangered species and limits the right of citizens to judicial review, effectively barring communities from bringing lawsuits to hold federal agencies accountable.  

Both FOFA and the Trump administration’s recent actions call for changes in forest management that could ultimately worsen the risk of fire. The executive order seeks to increase timber targets, which would focus limited Forest Service staff on meeting commercial timber amounts rather than taking appropriate measures to reduce wildfire risk. These directives would also facilitate the removal of large old-growth trees that are naturally more fire-resilient. More logging will exacerbate the underlying causes of severe wildfire blazes – namely, dry forest conditions, caused by rising temperatures and a lack of precipitation due to climate change. 

The following is a statement from Earthjustice, Oregon Wild, Standing Trees, and the Center for Biological Diversity, groups in the Climate Forests Coalition.

“Whether we are talking about the Fix Our Forests Act or President Trump’s executive order on forests, we are talking about an attack on our national public lands. This Senate bill could open the door to unlimited logging of forests owned and cherished by all Americans. Cutting down our old-growth and mature trees will ultimately worsen climate change. Rather than handing the keys to the Trump administration to unleash a logging bonanza, Senators should propose an alternative bill focused on supporting sensible wildfire mitigation strategies such as home hardening, local emergency planning, and defensible space.”

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.

The post Dem Senators Introduce Logging Bill That Would Hand Over Keys to National Forests to Trump Administration appeared first on Oregon Wild.

“For years, conservationists have labored to influence decisions affecting public lands…Hundreds have invested time and effort examining sites, studying maps, adjusting boundaries, deciphering the subtleties of bureaucratic prose, and pressing convictions upon elected representatives. Then came November 4, 1980. Today, conservation accomplishments, decision making processes, and indeed, the public lands are in danger of being swept away…”

Those were the opening words of the January-February 1981 Oregon Wild newsletter. Ronald Reagan had just defeated Jimmy Carter, Republicans had taken the Senate for the first time in two decades, and the new power brokers aligned with anti-public lands extremists known as the Sagebrush Rebellion. To put it bluntly, shit did not look good.

Four and a half decades later, we can look back and see what followed—years of ups and downs punctuated by a steady series of wins for the wild that would have seemed improbable in 1981. Back then, the organization was young, just finding its footing, while the logging industry was an ever-present, dominant force.

Like a mountain goat facing a sheer cliff towering thousands of feet overhead, we didn’t let the scale of the challenge or the long odds of success deter us. We picked our way up the slope—sometimes slowly and persistently, sometimes with bold leaps—and reached every summit because we never gave up.

As we enter a new era with renewed challenges, the stakes are high and the obstacles immense. Here are a few stories from times we defied the odds to secure victories for nature. Let them remind us that we’ll do it again.

From ‘Rebellion’ to RARE victory

After the Reagan revolution put Interior Secretary James Watt in power, conservationists feared for the very existence of public lands. But we dug deep and went to battle for roadless areas. In a review process mandated by Congress, the early-’80s Forest Service had purposely stuck their heads in the sand – identifying only 262,000 acres out of 3 million-plus acres available as wilderness-quality. So, we sued the bastards and the threat of litigation lit a fire under Congress. In 1984 over 850,000 acres of Wilderness were protected in the Oregon Forest Wilderness Act including beloved landscapes like the North Fork John Day Wilderness and the Sky Lakes.

Riding out the rider from hell

When the northern spotted owl was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Oregon Wild and allies seized the moment to challenge the entire timber sale program in the Pacific Northwest. A federal judge agreed and issued an injunction, halting old-growth logging projects across the region.

Never one to shy away from bending the rules to benefit big timber, Senator Mark Hatfield introduced the notorious Section 318 “Rider from Hell” in 1989, releasing 18 ancient forest logging projects from the injunction. While this move won the day for the timber industry, public and legal pressure to stop the epidemic of old-growth clearcutting continued unabated. Just four years later, the Clinton Forest Summit led to the creation of the world’s first ecosystem management plan—the Northwest Forest Plan—which marked the end of the heyday of ancient forest logging.

From privatization to protection

In the days following Donald Trump’s election in 2016, Oregon got an early preview of public land privatization proposals when the State Land Board accepted bids to sell off the 82,000-acre Elliott State Forest to private timber interests. The deal seemed final. But then Oregon Wild and our allies raised holy hell. Bob Sallinger warned in The Oregonian that Governor Kate Brown would be “haunted for the rest of her career” if she voted to sell the Elliott. Once seen as inevitable, the sale was halted when we raised enough of a ruckus to persuade all three Land Board members (including Republican Dennis Richardson and Treasurer Tobias Read, both of whom flipped their votes) to reverse the decision. Today, the vast majority of old growth in the Elliott is protected under a new Habitat Conservation Plan.

A Devil of a time

Located deep in the heart of the Oregon Coast Range, Devil’s Staircase was one of the last roadless areas left unprotected by the 1984 Wilderness bill. In 2009, Oregon Wild and many allies reignited a campaign to protect the area’s towering ancient trees and mythical, stair-stepped waterfall. Despite multiple near misses, the Oregon Wildlands Act eventually passed as part of a larger legislative package and was, somewhat surprisingly, signed into law by Donald Trump in 2019. The new law also designated the Molalla River and over 250 miles of tributaries to the Rogue River as Wild & Scenic. This hard-won victory is a testament to Oregon Wild’s relentless commitment over the decades to securing a protected natural heritage.

Big trees trump Trump

In the final hours of the first Trump administration, a political appointee overseeing the Forest Service approved a rollback of protections for large trees across seven million acres of National Forests. This action directly attacked the Eastside Screens—a rule established alongside the Northwest Forest Plan to protect the last remaining older forests east of the Cascades. These trees, 21 inches in diameter or larger, represent only 3% of trees still standing in eastern Oregon, yet hold 42% of the forest’s carbon.

Despite efforts from the collaborative-industrial complex (including scientists funded by the Forest Service) to defend Trump’s decision, Oregon Wild and our allies immediately mounted a legal challenge. In August 2023, a magistrate judge ruled overwhelmingly in our favor, citing violations of the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and other laws. In April, another judge confirmed this ruling, effectively reinstating the Eastside Screens. When Forest Service attorneys dropped their appeal in September, a four-year battle to protect ancient forests across seven million acres finally came to a close.

Mountain goat photo by Drew Watson

The post Defying Gravity appeared first on Oregon Wild.

Also a part of this series:
North Fork Umatilla Wilderness: Saved by a Trout?
Saving the Big Trees of Badger Creek as Wilderness – A Lucky Break
Hardesty Mountain Roadless Area: Vigilance, Close Calls, & Heroes
Lookout Mountain: Roadless Beacon of the Ochocos
Beloved Metolius River
Every Wild Place Has a Story

“Our responsibility as life tenants is to make certain that there are wilderness values to honor after we have gone.” – William O. Douglas

Snap snap, SNAP! Then came the whooooooosh and a thud that shook our popup camper by the Imnaha River in the predawn. Wes and I felt the reverberation from 150 yards away. Later, we found the Douglas-fir bridging a river channel near a beaver dam. The gunfire-like snaps were roots popping as the living tree tipped over and pulled up a wall of soil and roots 20 feet high, plus shaking loose a snaking section of the bank.

Curious to look at the tree’s crown, we waded across the frigid waters to the other side (with the help of two beaver-chewed sticks for balance). Among a whorl of green needles, I spotted something bizarre— brown fur, dainty hooves, and a skull. How had an elk calf ended up draped over a branch way up high in the fir?

Did a cougar climb to the topmost branches with his or her prey?

This tree had stories to tell. The Imnaha, too, whispers of wolf howl, salmon splash, and kingfisher plunge. The river runs through one of the largest intact wildlands remaining in the Pacific Northwest. It’s here  where one of the world’s most famous wolves—OR-7 or Journey—romped as a pup with his Imnaha pack in 2009. He would head across Oregon tracing wildlands wherever he could all the way to California to find a mate.

Rob Klavins, eastern Oregon field representative for Oregon Wild, calls the Imnaha River a microcosm for all that’s at stake in the region—from habitat connectivity to big wildlands. The first moose spotted in Oregon was on the Imnaha River in 1960. The first wolf returning to Oregon crossed the Snake River in the vicinity. If grizzly bears find their way into the Wallowas, the Imnaha corridor beckons.

Threatened chinook salmon still spawn in the upper Imnaha after swimming some 550 miles from the ocean and navigating eight dams. White-headed woodpeckers nest in centuries-old ponderosa pine snags.  Black bears feast on summer huckleberries. Bull elk bugle in fall when larches flame golden on steep hillsides. The lone wolverine of the Wallowas (named Stormy) roams the Imnaha country seeking a mate.

Within the homeland of the Nimiipuu, the Nez Perce, the Imnaha River flows 77 miles from headwaters at 8,000 feet within the Eagle Cap Wilderness (Oregon’s largest) to 950 feet at the confluence with the Snake River in Hells Canyon, deepest gorge in North America.

Designated a Wild and Scenic River in 1988, the Imnaha crosses boundaries of Wilderness, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, and some private lands in the lower stretch. Passaging east and then north down through every ecosystem in the region, the Imnaha serves as a vast climate refugia in a warming world.

Threatened Wildlands

Not all the wildlands of the Imnaha country are protected.  Sadly, the Imnaha also is a microcosm for the increasing logging threats across the region under the guise of “restoration.” Logging and roading frays and fragments climate refugia.  The key to cold, clear waters, biodiversity, wildlife corridors, and carbon storage of large trees is to keep wildlands intact.

The Morgan Nesbit timber project covers a staggering 87,000 acres adjacent to the Eagle Cap Wilderness and intruding into the Imnaha River wilds. Half the proposed commercial logging is within the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. But thanks to organizing by Greater Hells Canyon Council and Oregon Wild in 2023, the offices of the Wallowa Whitman National Forest were flooded with comments opposing the logging. The planning process is ongoing, and activists know it’s not over while the trees still stand.

Take action on this project! Comments are due December 19.

The fate of the Imnaha’s unprotected roadless areas buffering the Wilderness and the river is in our hands.

Contemplating the high stakes today, it helps to turn to the past and be reassured. It’s always been hard, yet there’s camaraderie among all who stand shoulder to shoulder protecting wildlands and rivers. The wins of the past should give us hope for the future—no matter what the politics.

Past Successes Inspire: Oregon’s Biggest Wilderness

Without tireless advocacy, the 359,991-acre Eagle Cap Wilderness we know today would have been far smaller. In 1930, the  alpine meadows, lakes, and peaks  garnered recognition as a primitive area. In 1940, the Forest Service designated the area as wilderness with a small “w”, meaning that status could be lifted if political winds shifted to favor development. The Wilderness Act of 1964 assured  protection under the National Wilderness Preservation System, but only for the Eagle Cap core. In 1972, Congress added the Little Minam River and expanded some of the Wilderness perimeter. However, those 73,419 acres came at a price—with certain lands declassified from an earlier protective status. The crown jewel of the Lower Minam was handed over to the Forest Service to study for potential Wilderness.

Enter the grassroots group “Save the Minam,” led by the inimitable Loren Hughes (worthy of an entire book!).  The group prevailed. Congress added the Minam’s 67,711 acres under the Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984. The victory was far from easy. For example, Boise Cascade timber company put out a full-page ad focusing on northeast Oregon, calling the House Bill “An ‘Un-Natural’ Disaster! We can do without.”

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

One famous champion of the Minam and Eagle Cap Wilderness was William O. Douglas who served longer than any other chief justice on the U.S. Supreme Court (from 1939-1975). He summered on the Lostine River, one of the main entryways to hike to the lakes basin and Eagle Cap.

It was  Douglas who ultimately saved the Snake River from a dam that would have flooded Hells Canyon. He wrote the majority opinion for the 1967 Supreme Court favorable ruling on a Sierra Club challenge represented by a young lawyer named Brock Evans (still championing the wilds from La Grande). The fight to stop the High Sheep Mountain Dam led to the formation of Hells Canyon Preservation Council in 1967.  Now the Greater Hells Canyon Council (GHCC), the grassroots group works to save wildlands throughout much of the Blue Mountains.

Seven years later, in 1974, Oregon Wild entered the scene as Oregon Wilderness Coalition, a scrappy group fighting for the wilds and taking on big timber—as they do today—50 years and many wins later and now with thousands of members. (Check out this video celebrating the anniversary!)

Hells Canyon: Troubled Waters, Threatened Forests

Both groups (now GHCC and Oregon Wild) worked hard for the passage of the 1976 Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Act that covers 652,488 acres with the deep gorge as the centerpiece.  However, the first signs marking entries to the National Recreation Area (NRA) were not put up until 1984. In the intervening years, the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest’s most visible early management in the NRA was logging. From 1976-1986, the agency sold 78.6 million board feet of timber. Considering only a third of the area is forested, that’s a heavy dose. In 1982, loggers dragged trees through Lick Creek, a tributary of the Imnaha, right as salmon tried to spawn. In fact, the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission filmed logging in spawning grounds of the Imnaha protected by 1855 treaty rights.

When researching my investigative journalism thesis  (Troubled Waters, Threatened Forests, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, 1988), I interviewed Allen Pinkham, then chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee. “The treaty is very strong,” Pinkham said. We need to exert that power to preserve the fishing—not just the right to fish, but the right to have the fish back.”

Today, those words are more relevant than ever as the future of chinook salmon depends on removing the four dams on the lower Snake River and keeping spawning habitats safe from logging and other degradations.

Back in 1986 and ’87, perhaps the most egregious timber sale in the recreation area was called “Skook,” located above the upper Imnaha River area. Boise Cascade hauled out 3.2 million board feet on roads built at twice the width specified in the contract. They cut giant ponderosa pines, western larch, and standing dead trees. Environmentalists and tribes fought to save  big trees , but it was a tough time. Hiking the hillsides above Imnaha near Skookum Creek today, there are still beautiful pines and larches remaining, even as stumps tell the story of what was lost.

Enter Mike Higgins: Friends of Lake Fork

Close to the Imnaha River is the Lake Fork Roadless Area, not far from Pine Valley, where Mike Higgins lived for decades before moving to Baker City in the summer of 2023. Higgins serves on the GHCC advisory board.  In the summer of 1986, Mike and his wife Donna Higgins hosted a small group of like-minded folks at their home in Halfway.

 While the subject was serious, the proposed logging of wildlands around Lake Fork Creek, there’s a humorous story that Mike Higgins likes to share about Tim Lillebo (eastern Oregon field representative of what was then Oregon Natural Resources Council), who initiated the gathering that would lead to a lasting environmental movement in Pine Valley.

“With an enthusiasm never before witnessed in the environmental community, the step that Tim took from the front porch of the Higgins home to the front yard, in pursuit of yet another map, imprinted an indelible mark on the Friends of Lake Fork Group,” Higgins wrote. Lillebo failed to notice a screen on the door and fell right through it, taking the screen with him.

Friends of Lake Fork convinced the Pine Ranger District to stop their logging plans, citing harm to elk and to late-season flows for irrigation, since unlogged forests hold and slowly release water.  It was a great victory for the roadless area outside of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. However, within the boundary where protecting natural values was supposed to take precedence, the Forest Service continued to log and propose new sales.

I joined Higgins when he led a 1988 field trip to see freshly torn up muddy meadows, stumps, and slash in the aftermath of the Cold Grave timber sale, which cut down large spruce and grand fir growing among bogs and springs by Duck Lake Campground (just outside Lake Fork). Even the timber sale project officer Gerald Magera admitted they failed to protect the bogs as heavy logging equipment churned through delicate sphagnum wetlands within a forest of ideal habitat for lynx and fisher. Despite the damage, what remained of the delicate area would be designated a Research Natural Area in 2010.

Three environmental groups (Friends of Lake Fork, then Hells Canyon Preservation Council, and Oregon Natural Resources Council) sued the Forest Service to stop the next sale called Duck Creek and within the recreation area’s part of Lake Fork roadless area. That lawsuit went to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and, in 1989, the ruling in favor of the appellants set a precedent. The Court found the agency negligent in writing rules and regulations governing timber cutting in the recreation area, and gave environmental groups the right to file for injunctions to stop sales until new rules were in place. Unfortunately, the agency logged Duck Creek as the case went through the courts.

Making Progress

In the intervening decades, conservationists have achieved impressive feats in safeguarding this wild part of the region. For example, in 1994, Greater Hells Canyon Council  (GHCC) won a lawsuit validating the ecosystem and wilderness protection priority of the recreation area. Other 1990s wins included protecting bighorn sheep from lethal diseases by eliminating domestic sheep grazing within Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.  GHCC also defeated legislation that would have allowed unlimited jet boat use on the Wild and Scenic parts of the Snake River. A 2014 Snow Basin court case saved more than 40,000 large trees from being logged adjacent to the Eagle Cap Wilderness and led to strengthening the East Side screens to better protect trees 21 inches and larger.

Rallying for Wilds Today

As we prepare for this next Trump presidency and an all-out attack on the environment, we can take heart by looking to the past. The Imnaha River country holds immense promise if we can keep the wilds intact and enough people come to know and love this place to speak up for the future.

Returning to the Douglas-fir that fell across the Imnaha River on a July day and nourished the wild waters, I would add this reminder. Go out in the wilds. You never know what drama will unfold. Feel the power of wind, water, thunderstorm, and ancient forests exhaling oxygen. No matter where you live, become an activist. Every little bit we do matters, from saving trees in a local park to joining forces with Oregon Wild and local grassroots groups in defending wildlands.

See it for yourself:

Take the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Scenic Corridor linking Joseph to Halfway.  Stay in one of several campgrounds on the upper Imnaha River corridor. Hike the trail from Indian Creek Campground into the Eagle Cap Wilderness—also a section of the Blue Mountains Trail.  Along the two miles leading to the Blue Hole, notice the way wildfire in the Wilderness has renewed meadows favored by hundreds of elk. This hike (as well as others in this Wallowas region) is featured in Oregon’s Ancient Forests, a Hiking Guide, by Chandra LeGue, Oregon Wild (Buy it here!)

The post Imnaha River: Wolves, Wilderness, and Wildlands appeared first on Oregon Wild.

Also a part of this series:
Saving the Big Trees of Badger Creek as Wilderness – A Lucky Break
Hardesty Mountain Roadless Area: Vigilance, Close Calls, & Heroes
Lookout Mountain: Roadless Beacon of the Ochocos
Beloved Metolius River
Every Wild Place Has a Story

It was 1979 at dawn when Bill Fleischman acted on impulse. Why not take the long way from his home in La Grande to Pendleton for the wilderness hearing? He’d hike a short way up the North Fork Umatilla River for a little fishing. What better way to get inspired to speak up for this obscure roadless area to be part of Senator Mark Hatfield’s proposed wilderness bill (a smaller-sized version before the Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984).

Sure enough, a half-mile upriver, he caught a 13-inch rainbow with extra shiny black spots. Lining his wicker creel with ferns, he lowered the wriggling fish inside and hurried back to the trailhead. The clock was ticking and he didn’t want to be late. But he would take time to clean the fish and have his catch with him at the hearing—adding a flare to his testimony. However, he had lined the creel so well the fish was still alive. That’s when things got interesting.

“I thought since the trout was fine, I’d fill the cooler with water and bring the fish along,” he said.

But when he got to the hearing, Tim Lillebo, then Oregon Wild’s eastern Oregon field representative, knew there was a problem. It’s illegal to transport a living wild trout without a permit. Problem solved: The regional director of the state wildlife agency was at the hearing and issued the permit on the spot.

With the cooler by his side, Bill used a hardhat to swirl and aerate the river water. There was muttering and speculating when he lugged the cooler up on stage to join a panel of environmentalists that he recalled included Tim, the charismatic Loren Hughes of La Grande, and Beryl Stillman from Heppner. When Bill opened the cooler lid, Senator Mark Hatfield came right down off the dais, plunged his hands into the water, and held the trout —more excited by the living fish than anything he’d heard or would hear that day. “The timber industry was so pissed off,” Bill recalled with a chuckle. After the hearing the regional director suggested he put the trout right back where he caught it. Bill did.

I got the tip about Bill and the trout from James Monteith, who spoke at that 1979 hearing, too. One of the founders of Oregon Wild and a  longtime executive director, James is convinced that famous fish made a difference in securing the North Fork Umatilla within the 1984 Oregon Wilderness Act.

Taking a live trout to a wilderness hearing is brilliant. It’s also just what my friend Bill, who I’ve known since the early 1980s, would do. He’s that kind of quirky creative genius and quite a fisherman, too. While happily living in Missoula, Montana, he’s still connected to Oregon’s wilds and is a natural storyteller. Bill’s also humble, insisting his part was minor.

Enter the Legendary Marilyn Cripe

To protect the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness did take years of tenacious activism, especially from a Pendleton group called MEOW (Maintain Eastern Oregon Wilderness). What no one knew then was how critical this area would become as an  anchor of a wildlife corridor and as refuge from the extreme weather of climate change.

Earlier this fall, I hiked the river trail of the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness with Marilyn Cripe of Pendleton, founder of MEOW in 1970. At 82, she set a brisk pace for our group of four and only grumbled slightly about using trekking poles to prevent a fall, a concession to a setback from a stroke a year and a half earlier. I couldn’t have asked for a better guide on our six-mile round trip.

Marilyn’s passion for all things wild began in Ukiah (an hour south of Pendleton) where she rode her horse through forests from age six to nine before moving to Pendleton. Later, she and her husband Gene explored miles of backcountry on horseback. In the 1960s, they became alarmed by logging of roadless country. Soon after, Marilyn formed MEOW.

To join Marilyn is to see through her eyes the haven she’s known since first riding horseback up the precipitous Lick Creek trail with her friends the Bakers who owned the nearby Bar M Ranch. The Bakers would become fellow wilderness champions.

On this hike, we entered a wonderland of springs, maidenhair ferns, mosses and wide-bellied grand firs mingling with larch, water birch, alders cottonwoods, and Pacific yew. Wilderness enfolds the river, steep canyons, ridges, bunchgrass slopes, stringers of mixed conifer forests, and rocky rims with vast views. We followed a section of the 530-mile-long Blue Mountains Trail—created and overseen by Greater Hells Canyon Council, the grassroots group advocating for wildlands in this region.

Marilyn has saved a lot of files from her days as an activist. Before our walk, Marilyn handed me a 1980 MEOW brochure with the headline in all caps, “Save the North Fork of the Umatilla From Being Logged.” Then, the Forest Service had denied Wilderness Study status, and instead tallied a potential 135 million board feet they could log from 10,000 acres—much of it steep with sensitive soils. Timber sales were in the works.

In a 1981 Wilderness hearing in La Grande, Marilyn testified on behalf of the North Fork of the John Day, Elkhorns, Lower Minam, and the North Fork of the Umatilla River. In her statement, she lamented the “coming of roads and the going of forest.” She spoke of the years she had spent studying maps, timber sales, attending meetings, hearings, and documenting roadless qualities in the field whenever she had spare time from running an electric motor service business with her husband. That’s what tenacity looks like.

On the river trail, we paused often to marvel at the log jams and channels, a beneficial aftermath of floods in February of 2020. Downed trees add nutrients and shelter for fish. Cottonwoods need flooding for seeds to sprout. Marilyn pointed to a deep pool below the log jam as ideal for an idling bull trout. A threatened species in Oregon, the trout depends on cold, clear, and connected waters. Importantly, a number of tributaries to the North Fork Umatilla, outside of protected Wilderness, are included in the River Democracy Act.

A Lush Climate Refugia and Wildlife Corridor

Forty years ago, local environmentalists recognized the high values of the pristine North Fork feeding the Umatilla River flowing through Pendleton. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla—the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla—have intimately known and respected the life-giving Umatilla River of their homeland since time immemorial.

But climate change? The term was absent in 1984. Today, this verdant canyon and forests form vital climate refugia, buffering extreme weather and offering cooler realms as global temperatures rise to dangerous levels. Wildlife and even plants are on the move northward and to higher elevations—if there are ecologically intact corridors available. The North Fork Umatilla Wilderness anchors several migration routes, including a key corridor north to the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness (177,737 acres designated in 1978). Wide-ranging animals, including wolves, elk, and cougars, traverse the linkages in multiple directions.

However, Wilderness areas across the Blue Mountains are too isolated from one another. A labyrinth of logging roads form barriers for wildlife. But add in roadless areas with strategic closing of old roads and the puzzle pieces fall in place. Permanent connectivity is possible, while in many other parts of Oregon, those pieces are missing. (To speak up for roadless areas and wildlife corridors, please weigh in on the Blue Mountains Forest Plan – see the Take Action area below.)

Return to the Rim 40 Years Later

Back in 1984, I gathered with environmentalists (including Marilyn) on the 5,000-foot elevation plateau overlooking the canyon on a snowy day. We were there to dedicate the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness. Camping the night before in Woodland Campground, we’d also hiked partway down the Nine Mile Ridge.

Returning to the Umatilla rim with Marilyn the day before our river walk, I felt the tug of connection and pride for doing my part for the 1984 Oregon Wilderness Act back in my twenties. Now as a board member of the Greater Hells Canyon Council, I’m in awe of the mostly youthful staff—motivated, smart, and the best part? They laugh often and keep up their spirits no matter how hard it gets.  I see that same get-er-done and have fun spirit in Oregon Wild.

And for us folks in our “third act”? We might take a cue from the vitality of Marilyn Cripe striding up the North Fork Umatilla River trail and still speaking up for the wilds. And when it comes to that fateful 1979 wilderness hearing, I believe no testimony could compete with a gleaming trout splashing in cold, clean river water.

Take Action:

• Support the River Democracy Act: Take action here.

• Stay apprised and weigh in on the Blue Mountains Forest Plan revisions, which can have big impacts on future logging plans and protected areas. Sign up here.

Take a Hike:

• The North Fork Umatilla Wilderness is featured in Oregon’s Ancient Forests, a Hiking Guide, by Chandra LeGue, Oregon Wild (Buy it here!)

• Learn more about the Blue Mountain Trail – how to hike it, volunteer, and more!

The post North Fork Umatilla Wilderness: Saved by a Trout? appeared first on Oregon Wild.

Oregon Wild, conservation allies, tribes, and scientists all joined the fight and challenged the removal of these protections in court. 

Late last Friday, those protections were fully reinstated!

This is a shared victory. In making her ruling, the judge noted the thousands of you who weighed in through comments, as well as our members and supporters who came from across the state to pack the courthouse.

Safeguards of Wildlife, Water, and Climate

Eastern Oregon’s diverse forests are often overlooked, but science is telling us they play a globally important role in the urgent fight against climate change and the biodiversity crisis. One of the safeguards of those important values are known as the Screens. 

The Screens prohibit trees over 21” in diameter at breast height (dbh) from being logged in the National Forests of Eastern Oregon and Washington that were not included in the Northwest Forest Plan. They are the most meaningful – and arguably only – protections for big and old trees in those places. 

These protections were initially put into place by herculean efforts from environmental champions, including our own Tim Lillebo. After three decades, we know they have effectively protected wildlife habitat, sequestered carbon, and conserved other important values.

Court Cites Public Concern, Restores the Screens

Represented by CRAG Law Center, joined by half a dozen conservation allies, and supported by the Nez Perce Tribe, we took the agency to court for its illegal actions to undermine public process and strip away the protections of the Screens. It was a relief when, last August, a magistrate agreed the agency had violated several of the country’s bedrock environmental laws. He recommended the Screens be reinstated.

However, in a quirk of the justice system, those recommendations had to be formally approved and adopted by another judge. We had to wait until March to know if those recommendations would stick. And they did!

Friday’s ruling affirms a Magistrate Judge’s decision last summer, saying the agency violated numerous bedrock environmental laws, and fully reinstates the Screens.

Threats on the Horizon

Still, we know the fight continues. 

Forest Service leadership continues to push for more discretion to do the bidding of their industry collaborators. They may still appeal this case, wasting more time and money. 

Even as the Biden Administration works to develop national rules to protect mature and old-growth trees, agency leadership continues to push in the opposite direction. 

Specifically, for over six years, regional leadership has been working with an exclusive group dominated by industry allies to change forest plans in Eastern Oregon.

The post A Big Win for Big Trees appeared first on Oregon Wild.

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Today, a federal judge made a sweeping recommendation to set aside an illegal Forest Service rule change made under the Trump administration. Conservation groups, with support from the Nez Perce Tribe, challenged a change to the Eastside Screens, a longstanding set of rules to protect old growth on six national forests in Eastern Oregon and Washington. 

The Screens protected trees over 21” in diameter on over 7 million acres of public lands. These represent the largest 3% of trees in the region. Just days before President Biden took office, a political appointee of the Trump administration illegally changed the rule and allowed those trees to be logged. The Forest Service was joined by the timber industry in defending the change.

A U.S. Magistrate Judge in Pendleton, Oregon, found that the Forest Service should be required to prepare a full environmental impact statement: “The highly uncertain effects of this project, when considered in light of its massive scope and setting, raise substantial questions about whether this project will have a significant effect” on the environment, including endangered aquatic species.

Jamie Dawson of Greater Hells Canyon Council was pleased with the result but stated,

“It’s a shame that we needed a court to tell the Forest Service that they must follow the bedrock environmental laws that have been in place for decades. Completing a full public process and taking a hard look at the environmental impacts of their actions is the least they should be doing, especially when considering such an impactful decision.”

The Eastside Screens were initially put in place by the Forest Service to protect remaining habitat for old-growth-dependent wildlife; certain species were in rapid decline after decades of logging of the biggest trees in Eastern Oregon and Washington. For almost 30 years, the Screens reined in the removal of large trees and prevented unnecessary conflict on many logging projects.
 
The amendment was criticized for being a politically-motivated action that circumvented public and tribal involvement and ignored an established and growing body of science that contradicts the decision. More than 100 independent scientists joined dozens of conservation, climate, indigenous, and public health groups in opposing the rule change.

The court recommended that the plaintiff groups prevail on all three of their claims, finding that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act, and the Endangered Species Act, and recommended that Forest Service’s decision be vacated and the Service be required to prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

“We’re pleased with the Court’s decision to invalidate the Forest Service’s misguided choice to remove protections for large trees on our public lands,” said Rory Isbell from Central Oregon LandWatch. “Today’s decision solidifies the value of large trees for our forests, wildlife, freshwater, and climate. We look forward to seeing these trees safeguarded well into the future.”

A recent scientific study found that the biggest and oldest trees covered by the rule make up only 3% of regional forests in the Pacific Northwest yet store 42% of forest carbon. Those trees also provide critical habitat for wildlife, keep water clean and cold, are resilient to wildfire, and are at the core of cultural values.

“The Sierra Club has long stood with our nation’s trees and forests, protecting these resources for our health and well being, as well as for that of future generations. We are encouraged that the court has sided with our case to protect the largest trees of our Eastside forests. We cannot stop here, but will continue to enlighten and encourage all people to experience the peace and awe of large trees and complex ecosystems, and use our legal system when we have to,” said Mathieu Federspiel of the Juniper Group Sierra Club.

In addition, on April 22, 2022, President Biden issued Executive Order 14072 on Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies, which directs the Forest Service to conserve America’s mature and old-growth forests as a part of a science-based approach to reduce wildfire risk and combat the climate and biodiversity crises.

“The Forest Service rushed through a politically motivated rule change to log the most ecologically important trees left on our landscape. Sadly, this is in line with their well-earned reputation for putting logging before the need to address the climate and biodiversity crises,” said Chris Krupp of WildEarth Guardians.

Rob Klavins, an advocate for Oregon Wild based in rural Wallowa County is looking forward, saying

“We hope the Forest Service will take this decision to heart. As they go back to the drawing board, we expect them to meaningfully involve all members of the public to create a durable solution. That includes Tribes, local conservationists, and independent scientists who were all deliberately marginalized in the first process. We call on the Biden administration to stop defending this illegal Trump rule change, and we encourage Senators Wyden and Merkley to empower all stakeholders in a process that will reduce conflict and ensure better outcomes in the future.”

That sentiment was echoed by Amy Stuart, a fish biologist and spokesperson for the Great Old Broads for WIlderness

“We stand ready to move forward with all parties, and the Forest Service to achieve a durable solution.”

Greater Hells Canyon Council, Oregon Wild, Central Oregon LandWatch, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, WildEarth Guardians, and the Sierra Club are represented by attorneys Meriel Darzen and Oliver Stiefel from the nonprofit Crag Law Center. 

The post Judge rules Forest Service violated the law in rolling back forest protections appeared first on Oregon Wild.

It’s hard to think beyond pandemics, childcare, and personal finances these days. The Trump administration’s lurching through a public health & economic crisis isn’t helping. However they seem to have laserlike focus on using the crisis to undermine environmental protections their industry friends would like to see go away.

At the national level, we see the suspension of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules, bail outs for the fossil fuel industry, and opening up wildlife refuges to hunting.

More locally, we see the Forest Service (USFS) designating the destructive and already dangerous industry of logging along with mining and grazing on public lands as “mission critical” while protecting Americans by restricting our hiking opportunities.

Then there’s a whole bunch of seemingly little stuff. Some of it matters a whole awful lot. One example is the 21-inch rule. Also known as “the Screens”, the rule says that live trees 21” and larger in diameter can not be logged on USFS lands East of the Cascades. At the behest of the timber industry and their allies, Trump’s Forest Service is trying to weaken them.

The rule was put into place in an effort to end the “forest wars” of the 1990’s. At that time, aided by federal agencies, the timber industry was liquidating the last of Oregon’s old growth. As the public began to fight back, the conversation west of the Cascades was dominated by spotted owls. In central and eastern Oregon, it was largely about salmon – which depend on functioning forests to provide the clean cold water they need to thrive. 

Interim plans were put in place to protect values under threat from business-as-usual logging and grazing. Those plans created a truce of sorts. In the long run, the USFS was tasked with creating more holistic and enduring plans ensuring protections for things like old growth, clean water, and wildlife habitat while allowing timber production to continue – albeit at a slower and more ecologically sustainable pace. 

On the west side, that holistic plan took the form of the Northwest Forest Plan. However, before a similar plan was fully formed for the east side, politics changed leaving the Screens in place as the most (and arguably only) meaningful protection for what remained of Oregon’s large trees and old growth.

Fast Forward ~25 Years

Forests in eastern Oregon are no longer being logged as heavily as they once were. However, logging big old trees in Eastern Oregon never completely went away. Local mills are still capable of milling trees much larger than 21 inches, and big old trees are coming off private lands at an unsustainable rate feeding hungry mills as far away as Asia. 

Over the last few years, the pendulum is swinging back hard with large projects proposing high volumes of industrial logging under the guise of “thinning”, “restoration”, and “collaboration”. Further, fire suppression, overgrazing, and other forms of mismanagement remain the norm. Even with the Screens in place to protect them, old growth doesn’t come back in 25 years.

Industry and those who want to cut the last big trees, of course never liked the Screens – or any restriction on logging and grazing. They argue the Screens are arbitrary and temporary. It’s been 25 years. It’s time to throw them out. They find sympathy with the politicians they lavish with campaign contributions as well as old school USFS decision makers and even a few nominal “green groups”. 

In addition to wanting to make eastern Oregon great again by logging big trees, those who tend to see forests as farms don’t like one species of tree in particular – grand fir.  It takes a long time for more “desirable” trees like larch and ponderosa pine  to grow to 21 inches. Not so for grand fir. They grow quickly and often die young.

In an age of fire suppression and reduced logging, there is probably more grand fir now than at many times in the past. This has resulted in a lot of logging-centric rhetoric about grand fir “encroaching” and “taking resources” from more “desirable trees”.

A woodpecker, hibernating black bear, or any of the dozens of species dependent on large structure in eastern Oregon forests likely have a very different view than an industry accountant on what is or isn’t desirable.

In the absence of abundant and functioning old growth forests, those young big trees serve a critical role on the landscape. 

Notably, the Screens were not arbitrary. They were informed by the best available science.

The Screens don’t only protect old growth. They protect large structure, habitat for snag-dependent wildlife, appropriate hydrology, soil health, carbon sequestration and more. They also didn’t discriminate based on species or corporate profits, unlike timber sale planners.

And yes, the Screens were meant to be temporary. But they were meant to be a placeholder until there was a holistic plan in place like the Northwest Forest Plan. That never happened.

What would be arbitrary would be to assign an expiration date of 2020 to the Screens. It’s a little too convenient to get rid of the Screens just when the pendulum is swinging toward more logging and less oversight.

Miles and Inches

Rather than just comply with the rule, over the last 25 years, the USFS frequently attached “Plan Amendments” to individual projects. Those amendments allowed the Forest Service to ignore or change the Screens and other rules on a project by project basis. 

Oregon Wild didn’t always oppose them. There are rare instances where we believe it may be appropriate to cut trees over 21 inches. For example, it might be ok to cut a young 25” grand fir growing under a 300 year old ponderosa pine that would serve as ladder fuel in the event of a fire and is only there because of human interference – like suppression of natural fire. 

However, as so often happens when conservationists give an inch, the Forest Service took a mile. Plan Amendments became the proverbial rule rather than the exception. 

Ultimately, a judge told the Forest Service that continually exempting projects from the 21” rule was unlawful and they had to stop. Those who want to cut big and old trees were not happy. Under pressure from industry and industry allies, Trump’s USFS has begun a process to reassess (pronounced weak·en) the 21” Screens – the most meaningful protection for old growth and big trees in Eastern Oregon. 

Dismantling the Life Raft at Sea

Because of the Screens, our forests provide higher quality habitat, store more carbon, and have more large structure. However, there remains a major deficit of that large structure in eastside forests. Living or dead, this structure provides critical ecological values – especially for wildlife. By definition, it takes more than 25 years for old growth to return. In the meantime, large young trees – including grand fir – are often filling the niche. 

Rather than create a plan that maintains and creates more large structure in a comprehensive way, [it seems to us] the USFS is just planning [almost certain to] simply to weaken the rules and find a way to start cutting big trees again.

Essentially we’re sitting in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. And rather than create a plan to row in the same direction to get to shore, we’re focused on how to dismantle the lifeboat because “at least we can all agree it was meant to be temporary”. 

There are some wonderful folks who work at the USFS. Even so, under the Trump administration, and the pressure being brought to bear by local politicians and industry apologists, it seems naive to think the Forest Service will produce an unbiased scientific review or a carefully-crafted, ecologically-appropriate adjustment to the Screens.

…Especially after they’ve spent the last two decades trying to work around them. 

As it is, the Trump administration has essentially redefined the word “restoration”. The only measures of that benign term have become the number of acres logged and the volume of raw material sent to mills.

The Forest Service has been using loopholes to propose ever bigger and more destructive projects in sensitive landscapes while sidestepping robust environmental analysis and meaningful public input. We’ve seen the result of that in controversial projects like industrial logging proposals along the Wild & Scenic Lostine River.

Moving Forward

We’re thankful some leaders like Rep. Peter DeFazio and Oregon’s Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have called on agencies to slow down during the COVID-19 pandemic. However we’ve yet to see them take note.

It’s been 25 years and the Screens are doing their job. There’s no rush to solve a problem that arguably doesn’t even exist: there are a multitude of unimplemented projects that have been planned; the bottom has fallen out of the timber market, log yards are nearing capacity, and we don’t have an overabundance of big or old trees. 

If the Forest Service wants to get past the “temporary” Screens that have been working for 25 years, they need to take their time and develop a holistic plan that is in line with the best available science and modern values. The process must allow for meaningful public input from all stakeholders. In short they have to be replaced with something better. 

It’s up to leaders like Oregon’s Senators Wyden and Merkley to make sure that happens. Or just tell the USFS to focus on legitimate restoration and real problems like overgrazing, the fire deficit, a deteriorating and outdated road system, and a lack of funding for non-extractive programs.

And it’s up to forest defenders and true conservationists to defend the 21-inch Screens. 

This blog only speaks for Oregon Wild. However, we want to publicly share our appreciation for our partners at Greater Hells Canyon Council who helped with this piece and remain tireless defenders of old growth protections and public lands in Northeastern Oregon.

We also want to thank the many organizations standing with us. In particular Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, Central Oregon LandWatch, CRAG Law Center, Greater Hells Canyon Council, and the Juniper Chapter of the Sierra Club. These groups all deserve your support!

The post Forever 21? appeared first on Oregon Wild.