Oregon’s public lands belong to all of us, and right now they’re under threat. These precious BLM lands still contain more than a million acres of mature and old-growth forests, some of the largest remaining trees in the state, and form the headwaters of iconic rivers like the Rogue, Umpqua, and Coquille.
These forests are more than just trees. They protect drinking water for communities across Oregon, support salmon and steelhead that sustain coastal economies, provide habitat for threatened wildlife, and offer countless opportunities for hiking, fishing, hunting, rafting, and other outdoor recreation. As these forests continue recovering from past clearcutting, they are also storing carbon and helping address climate change. But the proposal introduced in Congress by Representative Cliff Bentz would prioritize maximum logging above all other values, weakening safeguards for fish and wildlife, shrinking stream protections, and opening vast areas of public forest to the kind of large-scale clearcutting that pushed species like coho salmon toward extinction in the first place.
Oregonians deserve better than a return to the destructive logging practices of the 1970s and ’80s. By sending a message to Oregon’s congressional delegation today, you can urge them to oppose H.R. 7603 and reject efforts to dismantle protections for our forests and waters.
