Conservation groups this week filed a lawsuit to challenge Bureau of Land Management plans to log more than 14,000 acres of old-growth trees in the coast range west of Eugene.
Doug Heiken with the conservation group Oregon Wild called the BLM’s proposal a staggering amount of logging on what are supposed to be protected forest reserves, mainly in the Siuslaw watershed
He said the area is home to three species listed in the Endangered Species Act—the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet and Oregon coastal coho salmon.
“This area just west of Eugene is critically important for clean water and recreation and fish and wildlife and carbon storage to keep our climate stable,” he said.
Heiken said they want the BLM to do more extensive environmental analysis. The BLM did not have an immediate response to the lawsuit.
It was filed Wednesday by Oregon Wild and Cascadia Wildlands in Eugene District Court.
The BLM manages a checkerboard of public forest land in western Oregon. It updated its forest management plan in 2016 and no longer operates under the Northwest Forest Plan.
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