Judge Sides with Industry in Pursuit of Public Forests
What does it mean?
It’s no surprise that the timber industry wants public forests logged solely for timber yield. Water quality, recreation, and wildlife are not their concern; getting logs onto trucks is what they are all about. To get their way, the industry has funded litigation for decades to open up protected forests—including the remaining ancient forests on public lands—to more industrial logging.
Unfortunately, a Washington D.C. judge finally agreed with their interpretation of law to mandate that vast swaths of public forests be managed primarily for timber production. The 2.5 million acres of forest at issue in the recent ruling are the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in western Oregon. If this ruling is upheld, the fate of these public lands will include more ancient forests turned to stump fields, at the expense of our climate, our communities, and our water security.
What Happened?
In late November 2019, a Washington D.C. judge ruled that public forests managed by BLM have a timber-first mandate. Judge Leon ruled that protected areas such as national monuments, including the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southern Oregon, are illegal and extraction takes precedent on these public forests. His interpretation centers around the obscure 1937 O&C Act, which states that these BLM “O&C” forests should be managed for permanent forest production, watershed health, recreation facilities, and streamflows. Unfortunately, the judge’s ruling elevates logging above all other uses in the 1937 law.
Want to learn more about the legal history of O&C BLM lands?
The judge also ruled that the 2016 BLM plan for these forests—a plan that already prescribed some of the highest levels of intense logging on these lands in over 25 years—does not log enough. While the judge deemed the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and BLM plan for these public forests invalid, because not enough logging is required, we don’t yet know how he will ask the BLM to make it legal. Certainly the judge will require high levels of industrial logging. We also don’t know if the Trump Administration Department of Justice will appeal this ruling to the D.C. Court of Appeals. We are not holding our breath.
The judge got it wrong.
BLM public lands have more value than simply a source of logs, and the law supports this interpretation as have other courts.
Congress has passed key laws since 1937 that offer protection for these BLM forests. Laws such as the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act were passed in the 1970s to protect our water sources and at-risk wildlife. Congress has also designated Wilderness Areas such as the Wild Rogue, Soda Mountain, and others on so-called O&C lands. Additionally, Congress has allocated funding to manage National Monuments that have been designated by Presidential Proclamation. This showcases congressional intent to protect special places on Western Oregon BLM lands. We may need congress to intervene to ensure that Western Oregon BLM forests don’t become another sacrifice zone of industrial logging.
Given this congressional history, federal courts in the past have upheld the interpretation that these lands should be managed for myriad public values—not just timber.
Numerous courts have made clear that the BLM's management of the O&C public lands enjoy no special exemption from federal environmental laws. Despite the D.C. court’s interpretation of the O&C Act as a dominant-use statute, and regardless of any effects on the agency's ability to maintain a high level of timber production, the BLM must manage the O&C lands for non-timber uses when required to do so by federal environmental laws like NEPA and the ESA.
For our 20 year history, KS Wild has fought for these BLM forests. They are our backyard forests. They are where we get our drinking water, where people from all over the world come to recreate. They are the view out our window. We have worked with agencies to implement projects that restore, rather than destroy these forests. We will continue to fight for these public lands.
