The world of forest conservation lost a fierce advocate this week. Jim Furnish headed the Siuslaw National Forest in the Oregon Coast Range and was Deputy Chief of the US Forest Service during his 34 year career with the agency before he retired in 2002.
It’s not every day Oregon Wild lauds a Forest Service insider as a conservation hero, but Jim was special. Jim led the Siuslaw as Forest Supervisor during the critical years of 1992-1999 – the heart of the “timber wars” and the implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan. His bold positions and leadership in this time helped the Siuslaw transition away from being one of the largest timber producers in the country, logging acres of old growth on a daily basis. This was not only an important step towards protecting wildlife and salmon habitat, but also helped mitigate conflict in the region’s communities by setting the stage for a sustainable transition to a new logging paradigm – one focused not on old-growth clearcutting but on restoring watersheds, decommissioning roads, and thinning unnatural plantations
Furnish talks about the Siuslaw National Forest on a media tour in 2012
As Deputy Chief of the Forest Service from 1999-2002, Jim was a principal Forest Service leader in creating one of the most important, and contentious, policies in the agency’s history – the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. In 2001, this rule protected nearly 60 million areas of wild public lands from logging and road construction.
After he retired, Jim remained a tireless advocate for forests, helping to defend the Roadless Rule and doing work to promote the type of restoration he championed on the Siuslaw National Forest. In 2012, he came back to the Siuslaw National Forest to join forestry practitioners and environmentalists on a media tour on the Siuslaw National Forest in support of ecologically appropriate thinning in plantation forests. And he was the subject of a 2015 documentary by Alan Honick. “Seeing the Forest tells the story of how those early restoration efforts [in the Siuslaw National Forest] continued under Furnish’s successors, and led to multiple benefits for the communities and the forest ecosystem.”
Jim’s complicated relationship with the agency he spent his career with is laid out in his 2015 memoir “Toward a Natural Forest: The Forest Service in Transition,” which speaks to forest management that works in concert with nature. Documentarian Alan Honick notes that when he came to the Siuslaw in 1992, “he had already begun to suspect that the agency had gone too far in the direction of resource extraction.” One of the quips Oregon Wild’s Conservation Director Steve Pedery loves to use came from Jim: “To the Forest Service, logging is the answer. What was the question?” Yet in retirement, even when he was frustrated with the agency, it was always clear to his colleagues that he still cared deeply for the people who worked there, and that he was eternally hopeful that the agency could change.
In his last few years, he was an active member of the planning team for the Climate Forest Coalition, a national coalition of 120 organizations that are working to protect mature and old-growth trees and forests from logging across America’s public lands as a cornerstone of U.S. climate policy. The Coalition is, in essence, working to finish what Jim’s leadership in the Siuslaw began: protecting mature and old-growth forests on National Forests from logging. Jim brought deep knowledge of the Forest Service to the movement, as well as honesty and humor in the face of his frustration with the pace of this work and the Forest Service’s reticence to engage. He recently penned this opinion piece to support the campaign. In it, he says:
“I sent many trees to the mill. I also changed. As a close observer of the Forest Service for a half century, I am deeply troubled by the agency’s persistent, mistaken focus on timber production when there are larger issues at stake for our communities, the climate, and biodiversity.”
Jim will be missed by our community and, of course, by his family. Information about leaving memorial gifts and messages can be found here.
“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.
Fallen pine investigated by the authorElk calf remains in the upper branches of a giant fallen pine“Queen of the Imnaha,” painting by Robin Coen
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.
The fate of the Imnaha’s unprotected roadless areas buffering the Wilderness and the river is in our hands.
Larch trees in fall along the Imnaha River
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!)
Imnaha RiverBeaver dam on the Imnaha River Boise Cascade anti-Wilderness ad
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.
Mike Higgins in the Snow Basin timber saleTim Lillebo looking at a massive pine marked to be cut in the Skook sale in 1986The author with a pine that was cut down in 2017 as a supposed hazard in the upper Imnaha River corridor
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!)
“White-headed Woodpeckers,” painting by Robin CoenBlue Hole on the Imnaha River
Walking into a grove of towering trees on the edge of Crabtree Lake, trunks all wider than I can get my arms around, feels like I’ve entered a place outside of time. Carved by glaciers, the steep walls of Crabtree Valley and the moist environment around Crabtree Lake have protected pockets of ancient trees from fire for nearly a millennium. The centuries these trees have stood here – withstanding wind and snow; seeing fellow giants fall and new life grow; standing guard over the salamanders, rotting logs, and fungal spores that all contribute to the web of biodiversity that makes up their home – are beyond what most humans can fathom.
Human timelines are often more short-sighted. For decades, the lands surrounding this oasis of old growth were heavily logged by private companies and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In fact, the heart of the valley was once owned by a timber company and could have suffered the fate of the surrounding forests, but starting in the late 1970s forest advocates worked for years on a plan to save this special place. Eventually, a land swap resulted in the BLM acquiring the land from the timber company. The agency recognized the importance of the unique ancient forest ecosystem here and designated it first as a Research Natural Area and later as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern. Today these designations apply to 1,251 acres under the BLM’s Resource Management Plan.
But 1,251 acres isn’t much. A view from the air shows how disconnected this patch of forest is from other wildlands – surrounded as it is by roads and clearcuts.
A mix of ownerships, logging roads, and clearcuts (old and new) surround Crabtree Valley’s ancient forests
Over the years I’ve taken dozens of people to Crabtree Valley, navigating a maze of logging roads and clearcuts (nearly getting lost the first few times) to reach the closed road, now softening back into the hillside, that serves as a trail.
Every trip has been memorable in its own way. On my first visit, in the pouring rain, I saw my first Pacific giant salamander near the edge of Crabtree Lake. One year, a family with young children joined our group, and years later returned and shared photos of the now-adults revisiting the forest. Hiking guide author William Sullivan marveled at “King Tut” and “Nefertiti” when he joined Oregon Wild staff on a hike into the valley in 2014. Most recently, I brought author-naturalist Marina Richie and old-growth expert and hike guide author John Cissel to this special place.
None of us strangers to wild, ancient forests, Marina, John, and I crawled over down logs and navigated through spiny devil’s club to reach “King Tut” – where we stood in awe gazing up at this ancient Douglas-fir tree with characteristic spiraling grooves in its bark. Estimated to be over 600 years old (and perhaps 800), I got a look at the tree’s canopy with a drone on this trip and saw a healthy intact canopy no worse for the wear from centuries of exposure. Next, we ambled to the spectacular grove of immense firs, hemlocks, and cedars that grow on the east side of the lake – each of us marveling at the plants, fungi, and lacey canopy that surrounded us.
With every group I take to Crabtree Valley, I’m reminded how the draw of ancient forests, to something bigger and older and more mysterious than ourselves, is something that unites people.
As we look to a future where climate change is putting native plants and wildlife at risk, water may be more scarce, and threats of logging in older forests are more pervasive, it will be increasingly important that we not only protect more places like Crabtree Valley, but we also must restore the interconnected forest ecosystems that once connected Crabtree Valley to the forests of the Cascades. We need to let the next ancient forests grow, whether they are recovering from fires or regrowing after past logging.
This 1,251 acres of wild forest is only still standing because of the persistent advocacy of the people who fell in love with it. Such work is difficult, especially when setbacks come as hard and fast as opportunities and successes. Here at Oregon Wild, we know protections for these special places are often hard-fought over a long period of time, but successful outcomes are well worth the effort. Whether through defending bedrock environmental laws, pushing back against plans to log mature and old-growth forests, or inspiring forest advocates through outdoor experiences, Oregon Wild is here to do this work. We do it for the love of nature; for future generations of black bears and giant salamanders, hemlocks and huckleberries; and for humans who can take respite in the deep shade of an ancient forest canopy on a hot summer day, find water running year-round from a forest-sheltered stream, and marvel at an ecosystem centuries older than they can fathom.
Nurse log with hemlocksPacific giant salamander near Crabtree LakeThe author in her happy place in Crabtree ValleyCrabtree Lake surrounded by ancient forestBog in Crabtree ValleyOregon Wild crew and William Sullivan at King Tut treeCluster of Douglas-fir and hemlocks in Crabtree ValleyMarina Richie marveling at an old-growth treeAdmirers at the base of the King Tut tree
I’ve read a lot of books about Pacific Northwest forests. I even wrote my own (Oregon’s Ancient Forests: A Hiking Guide). You might think they eventually all seem the same. But reading an advance copy of my friend Peg’s book about our region’s forests inspired me to learn more about and protect this amazing place we call home all over again. Her compelling writing style, the stories she shares, her wonderful illustrations, and the passionate voice she brings to the urgency of our forests’ plight all set this book apart as something new and worth reading – regardless of how many other books about forests one has read.
Because this forest of rain and fire is so big and tumultuous, it is a good place to consider life on a rapidly changing planet far beyond human control. At this particular moment in history, as the earth is shifting all around us, understanding what it means to be a forest might help us understand what it means to be human.
In the book, Peg takes readers on an imagined field trip into the fire-born, rain-soaked forests of western Oregon and Washington, and some of the countless upheavals they have survived for millennia, including the age of modern industrial forestry that began in the 20th century.
Now, as policies that implement environmental laws are being revised and the public is being asked to comment on sweeping changes to federal forest management, it is more essential than ever for us to understand how complex forest ecosystems actually work. This compelling read will prepare you for this important advocacy.
Peg (M.L.) Herring is an emerita professor of science communication at Oregon State University, an active Great Old Broad for Wilderness, and an enthusiastic supporter of Oregon Wild. Based in Corvallis, Oregon, she leads workshops to inspire people to experience the world through observation, art, and ecology.
Go beyond the scenery of the Pacific temperate rainforest to witness how complex ecosystems survive in a world of upheavals
In this engaging book science writer M. L. Herring takes readers into the Pacific temperate rainforest at the tumultuous edge of a shifting continent in a precarious moment of time. Readers peek behind the magnificent scenery into a forest of ancient trees, exploding mountains, disappearing owls, tsunamis, megafires, and ten million people to learn what it means to be a forest in a world of upheavals.
Through Herring’s words and pictures, readers drift into the canopy through masses of ferns and lichens, burrow into soil through hair-thin threads of fungi, and plunge headlong through a watershed flushed with rain and snowmelt. Readers experience the temperate rainforest through science and art as it faces a shifting climate and the shifting priorities of a constantly changing society. The book journeys beyond the grid of latitude and longitude and into places only one’s imagination can fit, to discover what it means to be human in an ecological world.
A few notable words of praise:
“Born of Fire and Rain is filled with deeply researched scientific stories about the adaptations and intricacies at work in ancient forests. Beautifully written and illustrated, inviting, and up-to-the-minute, this wonderful and remarkable book is a rewarding and enjoyable read. It will appeal especially to readers who liked Braiding Sweetgrass or Finding the Mother Tree.”—Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Earth’s Wild Music “The Douglas-fir forests of the Pacific Northwest region of North America are nearly without rival in the world, and their distinctions have rarely been fully appreciated. M. L. Herring beautifully captures their story.”—Jerry F. Franklin, University of Washington College of the Environment
“M. L. Herring weaves together strands of science and nature writing, local history, and memoir to create a contemplative, deeply researched, and sensory-rich portrait of the Pacific temperate rain forest.”—James Barilla, author of My Backyard Jungle
Mature forest in the Siuslaw National Forest included in the Northwest Forest Plan
Conservation advocates express alarm about timing of move, expanded logging of mature and old-growth forests.
Contact: Steve Pedery, Conservation Director – 503-998-8411, sp@oregonwild.org John Persell, Staff Attorney – 503-896-6472, jp@oregonwild.org
Portland, OR – Today, the Forest Service released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on proposed amendments to the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). The DEIS contains proposals that would drastically reshape the way National Forests in western Oregon, Washington, and northwestern California will be managed and open the door to expanded logging in mature and old-growth stands.
“For nearly three decades, the Northwest Forest Plan has protected Pacific Northwest wildlife, clean water, and old-growth forests,” said Steve Pedery, Conservation Director for Oregon Wild. “It is deeply troubling for the Forest Service to propose such enormous changes to this vital environmental protection plan at this time, just before a change in Presidential administrations.”
Adopted in 1994, the NWFP sought to reform the Forest Service and halt an epidemic of clearcut logging that was ravaging publicly-owned old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. Those Forest Service logging practices had led to federal Endangered Species Act listings for coho salmon, northern spotted owls, and marbled murrelets and bitter public conflict over the loss of the region’s iconic old-growth forests. The NWFP was designed as a fish and wildlife protection measure first and foremost, focused not only on protecting surviving old-growth but also on re-establishing older forest habitat through stronger conservation of mature (80+ year old) stands.
The NWFP also had an enormous unforeseen benefit to the climate. Its emphasis on recovering older forests has captured and stored vast amounts of carbon dioxide pollution, turning our public forests from a net carbon source to a gigantic carbon sink, a natural climate solution.
“It appears that the Forest Service wants to abandon the fundamental purpose of the Northwest Forest Plan–protecting fish and wildlife and the mature and old-growth forests they need to survive,” said John Persell, Staff Attorney with Oregon Wild. “Instead, they are considering changes that would greatly expand their ability to carry out commercial logging in mature and old-growth stands.”
There are elements of the Forest Service DEIS that Oregon Wild, and many other conservation groups, do strongly support. In particular, conservation advocates applauded the agency and the Biden administration for considering ways to better consult with Native American Tribes, and to incorporate Traditional Ecological Knowledge and prescribed fire into their management plans. However, conservation advocates are concerned about whether or not the Trump administration would carry these policies forward.
“Regardless of what one thinks about the content of the Forest Service’s proposals today, the reality is that the agency’s timeline ensures that the final plan will be written by the Trump administration,” said Pedery. “Anyone who values clean water, salmon, wildlife, and old-growth forests should be alarmed by the perilous process the Forest Service has begun.”
“In the weeks to come, we will be closely scrutinizing the Forest Service’s proposals and working to ensure the public is fully aware of their implications,” said Persell. “We will also make sure that the agency, and the Trump administration, obey the law and that our beloved Pacific Northwest old-growth forests are safeguarded for generations to come.”
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.
Bill FleishmanRainbow Trout (photo by Bill Fleishman)
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.
1980 MEOW flyer about logging in the North Fork UmatillaMarilyn Cripe in the lush forest of the North Fork Umatilla WildernessMarilyn sharing old files at the author’s campsiteMEOW letterhead
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.)
Nine Mile Ridge TrailThe author crosses a new log bridge installed thanks to the Blue Mountains Land Trust and partnersThe North Fork Umatilla River provides a lush corridor through the Blue MountainsMap of area wild lands (courtesy of Greater Hells Canyon Council)
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.
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!)
This year, as Oregon Wild celebrates 50 years of protecting wildlands, wildlife, and waters we wanted to be sure our members, supporters, and long-time advocates from all over the state got a chance to connect with our organization. So our staff has been on the road this fall, hosting gatherings in some of the communities where our work has had an impact over our long history.
In Roseburg we gathered with our friends at Umpqua Watersheds to celebrate protecting places like the Boulder Creek Wilderness and fighting old-growth timber sales in the Umpqua National Forest and on local BLM lands.
In Medford, our friends with KS Wild, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Applegate Siskiyou Alliance, and many others joined us to celebrate the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, the return of wolves to southwest Oregon, the Wild Rogue, and the defense of backyard forests in the area.
In Eugene, Ninkasi Brewing hosted us as we toasted the town where we got our start, the partners and friends we work with on forest defense and the Climate Forests Campaign like Cascadia Wildlands, and the work we’ve done protecting the McKenzie River and Willamette National Forest.
In Bend, we took over a room at Worthy Brewing to celebrate the success our central Oregon staff and partners have achieved in protecting the amazing rivers, wild places, and old-growth trees in the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests, and the long-time advocacy of the iconic Tim Lillebo.
In Corvallis, supporters and friends (including a big showing of Great Old Broads for Wilderness!) celebrated protected Wilderness and endangered species in the Coast Range, our advocacy for restoration in the Siuslaw National Forest, and looked to the future of engaging folks in this community.
Instructions for adding to our vision mapSean presenting in MedfordOregon Wild staff at Worthy Brewing after the Bend eventBoard member alumnus Bob Warren introduces Sean at the Eugene eventNotes added in MedfordCasey Kulla talks with supporters in Lincoln CityNotes added in Lincoln CityOregon Wild staff get in a hike between NE Oregon eventsSean speaks to supporters in CorvallisSupporters gather at Worthy Brewing in BendSupporters gather at Dunbar Farms in Medford A good crowd formed in La Grande at the Valley Venue spaceGetting cozy at the historic Wallowa Lake LodgeUmpqua Watersheds director Kasey Hovick introduces Sean at the Roseburg event (photo by Robin Bailey)
In Lincoln City we welcomed folks from all along the central and north coast to check in about our work supporting the return of sea otters to Oregon, reforming state and private forest logging policy, and the coastal streams ready to be protected under the River Democracy Act.
Finally, in northeast Oregon we got together in La Grande and Joseph at the end of October with some of the original staff, board members, and activists involved with Oregon Wild – including our first Executive Director James Monteith. Partners with the Greater Hells Canyon Council, Forest Service and wildlife agency staff, scientists, and river guides helped us toast the wild places of the Blue Mountains, Hells Canyon, and the Wallowas. Our staff even had time to enjoy some of the wild lands we fight so hard for!
In every community, we gathered with enthusiastic supporters to reminisce about their involvement and appreciation of the places we’ve worked to protect together. Many added notes to our giant map showing conservation successes over 50 years to point out their passions and where they hope we’ll achieve success in the future.
Our roadshow tour has been really rewarding for our team as well – as we reflect on our history of work in different regions of the state, connect with supporters old and new, and join together in a vision for the future.
Thank you to everyone who has been able to join us at these events and to those who have made a special donation or picked up a shirt or sticker with our new logo to help show off your Oregon Wild pride and to inspire other lovers of the wild! (You can still make a special donation in honor of our 50th anniversary here!)
Photo courtesy of Alex Haraus | Shot by Aidan Kranz
When impact producer Alex Haraus – who hit the big time with his activism working to stop the Willow Oil Drilling Project in Alaska – wanted to get involved with protecting old-growth last summer, we were excited and figured we could use all the help we could get. Half a million public comments later, we were beyond thrilled with how effective social media platforms turned out to be to raise awareness and transform casual video viewers into action-takers for our forests and climate.
Now, as a more comprehensive draft plan for old-growth forest protection is rolled out for public feedback, we’re counting on Alex’s new feature-length film, “Crown Jewels” to inspire even more action for our forests this summer.
Back in December, the U.S. Forest Service announced a proposed nationwide forest plan amendment to advance protections for the remaining old-growth trees in all of the country’s National Forests. A draft Environmental Impact Statement for this amendment was just released in June, and it could add new restrictions on old-growth logging. It’s a step toward fulfilling the President’s Earth Day 2022 Executive Order 14072, which directed federal agencies to develop policies to protect mature and old growth forests on federal lands as a natural carbon and climate solution.
But one step doesn’t win the race. While this could be the first-ever national policy to protect old-growth forests on Forest Service-managed lands from commercial logging, it needs to eliminate loopholes that can still send old-growth trees to the mill, and it needs to include meaningful protections for mature forests (future old-growth) as well. The outcomes of this process, and how meaningful they actually are, will depend on how far the public can push the agency and the Executive Branch to establish enforceable protections.
Here in Oregon, we know full well how important our last remaining ancient forests are. They’re home to imperiled wildlife, they filter and cool our drinking water, and we visit them for recreation, renewal, and to practice cultural traditions. Many of us have been working for decades to stop old-growth logging sales, protect roadless wildlands, and enact policies that keep these forests intact for the many benefits – practical and intrinsic – they provide.
Haraus’ film, debuting in Eugene and Portland next week, explores these themes as his film crew travels from the rolling hills of West Virginia to the serene valleys of Wisconsin and to the temperate rainforest of Oregon. More than that, through grassroots storytelling, the film makes a case for protecting mature and old-growth forests across the federal estate and shows how the audience can help.
Take action:
Attend a film screening and panel discussion for “Crown Jewels”
Join an outing to the proposed Grasshopper Logging project near Mount Hood to see what’s at stake. RSVP here.
On May 10 and 11, two unseasonably warm spring days, more than 200 Oregon Wild supporters – from founding board members to business partners – celebrated our 50th Anniversary at gala events in Portland and Eugene. “Forest formal” attire; beer, wine, and cider from partner businesses; and a showcase of memorabilia and stories chronicling our history were on display. We also screened a brand new video celebrating our 50-year history and highlighting our resolve to keep fighting for wild nature into the future.
Being an advocate for wildlands and wildlife in Oregon is not easy. And often, after a big win – designating a new Wilderness area or securing endangered species protections for at-risk wildlife – we just move on to the next fight rather than relishing our accomplishments and celebrating the people that made them happen. For a 20-year period starting in the late ‘70s, the Oregon Wilderness Conference provided a perfect venue to do just that. And during that time we handed out awards to dozens of individuals and organizations in recognition of their sacrifices for and dedication to the wild.
On this occasion of our 50th anniversary, we wanted to return to that tradition and celebrate some of the conservation heroes among us, so in addition to celebrating our collective love of wild places and wildlife, the events’ program also recognized the dedication and accomplishments of some of the conservation heroes in our midst. Candice Guth, finance director at Oregon Wild for 17 years, received the Holly Jones Award for Organizational Development. Doug Heiken, a 30-year veteran on staff, received the Carol Alderson Award for Perseverance. Regna Merritt was awarded the William O. Douglas Award for Courage for her 20 years of work, including 10 at the helm, for Oregon Wild. Andy Kerr, legendary conservationist and director at Oregon Wild in the 1980s and ‘90s, received the David Simons Award for Vision.
In addition, Ann Vileisis, a champion for the wild rivers and natural areas of the southern Oregon coast, was awarded the Tim Lillebo Wildlands Warrior Award.
Photos from both evenings can be found in this album. (Thanks to Curtis Smith and Chloe LaMonica for lending their photography skills to the cause!)
These grand events would not have been possible without generous sponsorships and beverage donations from Mahonia Reality (Seth Prickett), the Elizabeth G. Maughan Foundation, Killian Pacific, Wyld, B+B Print Source, Mountain Rose Herbs, Worthy Brewing, Fullerton Wines, Ninkasi Brewing, Avid Cider Co., Breakside Brewery, and Schilling Hard Cider. And a special thanks to Expedition Old Growth for donating two tree-climbing adventures to the evening’s raffle!
From all of us here at Oregon Wild, thanks to everyone involved in helping out, attending, and supporting these celebrations of our past, present, and future. Look for more opportunities to celebrate in communities around the state later this summer and fall!
At Oregon Wild’s 50th Anniversary gala events in May, we announced the recipient of the 2024 Tim Lillebo Wildlands Warrior Award: Ann Vileisis.
Ann Vileisis was originally nominated by Wendell Wood the first year we gave this award, in 2015. It was quite a lengthy nomination. He noted that, “as President of the Kalmiopsis Audubon Society, Ann has engaged in dozens of issues affecting her southern Oregon homeland.”
He went on to list many of the campaigns and examples of Ann’s leadership, courage, and tenacity that I don’t have time to read through, but if it involves fighting for the wild places of the south coast, Ann has been there securing key support, organizing communities, and building alliances for places like the Copper Salmon Wilderness, the Wild and Scenic Chetco River, the salmon of Elk River, migrating birds, and botanical areas, and pushing back against damaging mining and development projects.
Nearly a decade later, Ann is still the president of Kalmiopsis Audubon. She continues to be actively involved in protecting wild rivers on the south coast, advocating for mineral withdrawals from headwater streams, and organizing south coast communities to protect natural areas – including in her role as Port Orford City Councilor. She does nearly all of this as a volunteer.
Through all of this work, Ann brings a unique ability to communicate with all kinds of people – whether in the KAS newsletter, her three well-received books, at public hearings, or bringing individuals and institutions that have traditionally been hostile to conservation around to her cause.
Wendell concluded his nomination with the following: “Being an effective conservation leader in a politically conservative, rural community is not an easy thing to do. It is thus no exaggeration to say that conservation on the south coast of Oregon would scarcely exist without the fine work that Ann has done… the inspiration she has provided for others will undoubtedly assure that the path she has blazed will continue to be followed by others.”
In Ann’s acceptance remarks, she said: “Southwest Oregon, where I live, is a land of extraordinary wild rivers. The Wild and Scenic Rogue is the most renowned, but we’ve also got the crystal clear Elk, the Illinois, the Chetco, North Fork Smith and others —that flow from several rugged wilderness areas —the Kalmiopsis, Wild Rogue, Grassy Knob and Copper Salmon.
These are inspiring places and I’ve been grateful for and also fortunate to know some some other special wild land warrior friends from the generation ahead of me who helped to protect them—the late great Wendell Wood, who I am sure many of you knew, and especially my dear friend Jim Rogers who we lost last year, he was well known as a timber industry guy turned conservationist—who really taught me the ropes of how to do conservation work in a rural community. I had the privilege to work closely with him on the effort to designate the Copper Salmon Wilderness to protect the old growth forests and salmon of the magnificent wild and scenic Elk River.
They set a high bar and passed the baton —that I could not let drop!”
Ann noted that “to receive an award in the name of Tim Lillebo is truly humbling and inspiring.”
For more than 40 years, Lillebo devoted his life to protecting and restoring the old-growth forests, rugged canyons, whitewater, and wildlife of Oregon. Upon his sudden passing 10 years ago, the Tim Lillebo Wildlands Warrior Award was born to honor his legacy.
Many remember Tim as gregarious and easy-going – the kind of person who made friends even with those who were staunchly opposed to his efforts to protect the wild. That memory of Tim is real. But at Oregon Wild, we also knew Tim to be a fierce and effective advocate for the Oregon he loved. We wanted the Tim Lillebo Wildlands Warrior Award to embody the spirit that Tim brought to his work for so many years.
Past winners of the award truly did just that: Dave Willis, Francis Eatherington, and the late Mary Gautreaux. We’re pleased to add Ann Vileisis to this esteemed list.
For nearly 30 years, the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) has directed management in National Forests in western Washington, Oregon, and northern California. A compromise enacted in 1994, the NWFP aimed to protect and restore old-growth forests and healthy stream habitat for threatened species, while still facilitating logging on public lands. Since the Plan came online, it has led to great progress in restoring some of the damage done by decades of unsustainable logging – protecting drinking water, keeping other wildlife off the endangered species list, restoring salmon runs, stabilizing the climate, and improving quality of life which is the foundation of the growing regional economy.
While much has changed in the past few decades, the Plan left a million acres of mature and old-growth forest in areas open for logging, so there remains a compelling need for strong direction to protect forests for water, wildlife, carbon, wildfire resilience, and old forest protection and restoration.
What is the Northwest Forest Plan and why does it matter?
The Northwest Forest Plan came into being after decades of unsustainable clearcutting and road-building radically altered forest ecosystems and watersheds and led to the Endangered Species Act listing of old-growth forest-dependent species the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and many stocks of salmon. Covering 24 million acres of federal forests in western Washington, western Oregon, and northwestern California, the NWFP attempted to strike a balance between logging and providing habitat for wildlife dependent on old-growth forests. The Plan defined areas for protecting and restoring old-growth habitat, set aside streamside areas to protect water quality and salmon habitat, and set strong standards for restoring forests and watersheds that were drastically damaged in previous decades.
Key components of the plan included designating large “reserves” for protection and recovery of old forest habitat conditions, generous stream buffers to protect water quality and habitat, a requirement to survey and protect rare species that may be in the path of old-growth logging (called Survey & Manage), and “matrix” areas between reserves where more logging is allowed.
The NWFP immediately slowed old-growth liquidation, brought improved management to federal forests within the range of the northern spotted owl, and in the 30 years that it has been in place there has been great progress in restoring some of the damage done by unsustainable logging of previous decades. Water quality and salmon habitat has improved, and the agencies are largely meeting their timber production targets by thinning in previously clearcut plantations rather than cutting mature and old-growth forests.
However, the plan is far from perfect. Some of the last remaining older forests remain unprotected. Logging of mature and old-growth forests is still allowed in “matrix” areas, and the Forest Service is exploiting loopholes to allow logging of old forests even within reserves. Logging and road building is allowed in many ecologically critical areas, including municipal watersheds, unroaded areas, and complex young forests recovering from fire. It also placed high expectations on timber production from these public lands.
Efforts to weaken the Northwest Forest Plan began as soon as it was finalized. When conservation groups used litigation to enforce the Survey & Manage Program, intended to protect rare species that live in old-growth, the Forest Service tried hard to weaken the rules. The Forest Service also sought to eliminate key aspects of the Aquatic Conservation Strategy under the plan, as well as efforts to weaken Endangered Species protections. The most consequential attack came from timber interests that opposed forest and habitat protections on Western Oregon BLM lands. They claimed logging should be the primary use of these public lands. A lawsuit settlement, initiated under the George W Bush administration, led to a revision of the BLM’s management plans in 2016. The revision essentially removed 2 million acres from the conservation framework of the NWFP, shrinking riparian reserves to just half their previous size and allowing more intense logging both inside and outside both riparian reserve and late successional reserves.
Despite its origins in addressing threatened species habitat, the NWFP has always been bigger than just the spotted owl. In defining areas for protection and setting strong standards for restoration, the NWFP has led to great progress in restoring some of the damage done by decades of unsustainable logging – protecting drinking water, keeping other wildlife off the endangered species list, restoring salmon runs, stabilizing the climate, and improving quality of life which is the foundation of the growing regional economy.
A northern spotted owl in flight by Kristian Skybak
Amending the Northwest Forest Plan
What’s changed? Many things have changed since the Northwest Forest Plan was approved. To name a few:
The global climate crisis is upon us. We know a lot more today about the role forests play in sequestering and storing carbon, and in providing vital climate refugia and connections for wildlife. In the decades preceding the Northwest Forest Plan, liquidation of the carbon-rich old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest added significantly to the cumulative over-abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The plan reduced logging to such an extent that northwest forests switched from being a source of carbon emissions to become a net sink of carbon. This highlights that forests can be part of the climate problem or part of the climate solution. In addition to the carbon benefits, mature and old-growth forests also offer stable climate refugia for wildlife that are trying to contend with extremes of climate change.
There is no longer a social license to log mature & old-growth forests. This is reflected in the fact that on April 22, 2022 President Biden issued an executive order declaring a policy to conserve mature & old-growth forests on federal land and to manage forests to retain and enhance carbon storage. The agencies should immediately implement these policies.
The barred owl, originally from eastern North America, has invaded the entire range of the northern spotted owl, and now competes with spotted owls for food and territory. Biologists tell us that we need to protect more old forest habitat to increase the chances that these two owl species can co-exist.
The timber industry has shifted to rely mostly on small second-growth logs and the broader economy has changed and diversified. The regional economy added far more jobs than were lost due to federal logging restrictions. The future of the regional economy depends much more on maintaining our unique quality of life, not logging our last mature and old-growth forests.
Climate-driven drought, weather extremes, and the impacts of decades of fire exclusion and suppression has led to more severe wildfires that threaten communities and the natural role of fire in forests.
New science has confirmed the important role that mature and old-growth forests play in helping to stabilize water flows, which is critically important in an age of climate change. New science also shows that these forests are more resistant and resilient to wildfire compared to logged forests.
Public lands legislation has protected some additional Wilderness areas, and policies like the Roadless Area Conservation Rule have protected intact forests in inventoried roadless areas, but many ecologically important smaller unroaded areas remain unprotected.
The NWFP was based on both Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Lands being managed under it, and BLM mature and old-growth forests being protected under its reserve system. Subsequent decisions removed the BLM plans, and today the Forest Service needs to expand and strengthen its own reserve system to compensate.
While updates to address these changes may indeed be warranted given changed circumstances, it is important that key pieces of the original plan are not weakened through an amendment or revision process.
The Northwest Forest Plan attempted to balance conservation with logging
What’s going on? In 2015, the Forest Service began considering if and how to revise management plans for national forests within the NWFP area. They held public listening sessions and completed an Assessment of the Management Situation and a Science Synthesis to inform the revision. The revision process was shelved during the Trump administration. In 2023, a federal advisory committee was convened to inform potential amendments to forest plans in Western Oregon, focusing on addressing wildfire risk, climate change, old-growth forests, tribal engagement, and rural communities and workforce.
The USFS has just released a notice with an amendment proposal. Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the agency must provide the public an opportunity to comment on this proposal. Then, they must analyze the environmental impacts the amendments might have, as well as alternatives to their proposal. This analysis will then be available for further public review and comment. The USFS is aiming to complete the amendment by the end of 2024.
Last month, the agency released a proposal to amend the Forest Plans for the region and they are asking for public input during the scoping period.
While some of the proposal’s language could be interpreted as positive, much of it is dangerously vague and leaves a lot of room for Forest Service discretion that may actually weaken current protections. This is especially true in dryer forests, where we are concerned that the Forest Service is exploiting fear of fire as an excuse to log forests that evolved with fire, and that the plan amendment could lead to more logging of mature forest under the guise of fuel reduction. In addition, while the proposal acknowledges the need to address climate change and mentions President Biden’s Executive Order on this subject, the purposes section strangely doesn’t mention the urgent need for carbon storage or sequestration.
The Northwest Forest Plan continues to be instrumental in keeping Oregon a special place through the restoration of forests and watersheds damaged by past logging and road building, recovery of economically valuable salmon runs, protection of wildlife habitat and old-growth forests, and ensuring our National Forests are part of a natural climate solution.
Oregon Wild has concerns that the Forest Service is using a rushed and abbreviated planning process for this amendment. This plan is important, and in order to maintain and strengthen its ecosystem-based conservation goals, the agency should use a transparent, science-based approach that includes and reflects public values, Tribal concerns, and the needs of future generations.
In crafting an amendment to the plan, we hope the Forest Service will consider the following points:
President Biden’s 2022 Executive Order on forests and the climate gave the Forest Service clear guidance that it should prioritize the protection and restoration of mature and old-growth forests (trees generally over 80 years old) across the nation as a natural carbon and climate solution. The Northwest Forest Plan governs the largest natural carbon reserves found anywhere in North America, and an amendment must recognize and safeguard the vast amount of carbon that can be sequestered and stored in these forests. The general direction to conserve trees over 80 years old in designated reserves has begun to reverse the loss of old-growth to logging, which in turn has turned PNW lands managed by the Forest Service from a carbon source to a carbon sink. However, not all of these older forests were protected under the plan, and every timber sale emits carbon to the atmosphere. The plan amendment should protect all mature and old-growth trees and forests.
Preserving biodiversity and connected wildlife habitat across the region should be a core principle of any forest plan revision. This includes not only threatened species, but others that have been impacted by the loss and fragmentation of their habitat, and those pending for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
Amendments should recognize the wide variety of social and economic benefits National Forests provide for local communities and the region as a whole, not just timber, but also clean water, climate stability, quality of life, and outdoor recreation.
In light of the removal of BLM forests’ removal from the Forest Plan’s regional reserve system, new information about the importance of older forests for the climate, and the ongoing needs of wildlife for connected habitat, any amendment to the plan should enhance protected, connected, and redundant reserves by including all mature and old-growth forests and core wildlife areas without roads (1000 acres or larger). The reserve network, including riparian reserves, should have clear and enforceable limits on logging and road impacts.
Fire resistance and resilience can be bolstered by preserving and restoring mature and old-growth forests. Fuels and fire management should focus on the home ignition zone and on non-commercial treatments and beneficial fire use, not commercial logging. Commercial logging for fuel reduction can negatively impact wildlife habitat, remove large fire-resistant trees, and create hazardous fire conditions. Standards must ensure that fuel reduction is both needed and effective before logging is allowed.
In short, we need a strong forest plan that addresses modern science and public values, tribal concerns, and the needs of future generations.
When you’re out enjoying the spectacular national forests in Oregon, you’re probably not thinking about laws passed decades ago to require forest plans for these areas. But these plans, and the subsequent standards, guidelines, designations, and policies they create, make a huge difference in what you’ll experience at your favorite trail, river, or picnic spot. They certainly affect the lives of the wildlife that call these places home, the fish that swim in the streams, and the plants that thrive in the forest soil.
One of my favorite trails is tucked away in the central Coast Range, along the North Fork Smith River. The trail takes you through a steep river canyon, past enormous Douglas-fir, moss-draped bigleaf maples, and waterfalls. This area of the Siuslaw National Forest is home to threatened and rare wildlife species (from salamanders to owls), and it is designated as a Special Interest Area and Late Successional Reserve under the forest’s Management Plan and the famous Northwest Forest Plan.
The Forest Service is planning a logging project here that might be incredibly concerning if not for the constraints of these plans – namely, ensuring that management focuses exclusively on thinning young plantations for the purpose of restoring old-growth and riparian forest habitat that help threatened species.
In far Eastern Oregon, there is another forested corridor – one that connects Hells Canyon to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. This part of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest has been identified by scientists as one of the most important and irreplaceable connectivity corridors on the continent. The landscape here is about as diverse and spectacular as it gets. When I first visited, I camped along Lick Creek. I was struck by the majesty of the mountain views, the huge scattered ponderosa pines, and dense stands of fir, larch, and spruce. I saw evidence of natural regrowth after fire. I heard my first wolf howl and saw wild salmon in the stream.
The diverse forest landscape in northeast Oregon can change dramatically under forest plan amendments that may apply to large projects like Morgan Nesbit.
What is a forest plan?
Every national forest has a guiding management plan, as required under the National Forest Management Act. In Oregon, most of these plans were completed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when logging, roading, grazing, and mining had already fragmented most intact blocks of habitat and cut down most large and old trees over a vast landscape. These forest plans aspired to break with the destructive activities of the past and envision more “sustainable” management. Though they have often fallen short of their aspirations, these new forest plans did start to consider uses that weren’t exclusively extractive. They outlined management guidelines and direction for everything from recreation, logging, Wilderness designations, wildlife needs, and other public values – kind of like a zoning plan for a forest. Plans were intended to be revised every 15 years or when conditions significantly change. Small amendments can be made in the interim.
Today, revisions and amendments are underway to make substantial, and potentially detrimental, changes to forest plans that touch nearly every national forest in Oregon, from the iconic Northwest Forest Plan to northeast Oregon’s Blue Mountains.
The Northwest Forest Plan
In Western Oregon, initial forest management plans saw major new developments almost immediately when, after decades of habitat destruction, northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets, and salmon were listed under the Endangered Species Act. The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) was developed as an attempt to strike a balance between logging and protecting habitat. In 1994, the NWFP amended plans for the Siuslaw, Mount Hood, Willamette, Umpqua, Rogue River-Siskiyou, and Deschutes National Forests, as well as Bureau of Land Management lands within the range of the northern spotted owl.
However, the NWFP has always been bigger than just one species. In defining areas for protection and setting strong standards for restoration, the NWFP has led to great progress in restoring some of the damage done by decades of unsustainable logging – protecting drinking water, keeping other wildlife off the endangered species list, restoring salmon runs, stabilizing the climate, and improving quality of life which is the foundation of the growing regional economy.
Efforts to weaken the Northwest Forest Plan began as soon as it was finalized. The most consequential attack came from timber interests that opposed forest and habitat protections on Western Oregon BLM lands. They claimed logging should be the primary use of these public lands. A lawsuit settlement, initiated under the George W Bush administration, led to a revision of the BLM’s management plans in 2016. The revision essentially removed 2 million acres from the conservation framework of the NWFP, allowing more intense logging and shrinking reserves.
In 2015, the Forest Service began considering if and how to revise management plans for national forests within the NWFP area, but the revision process was shelved during the Trump administration. Now, a federal advisory committee has been convened to inform potential amendments to forest plans in Western Oregon, focusing on addressing wildfire risk, climate change, old-growth forests, tribal engagement, and rural communities and workforce.
Blue Mountains Forest Plans
Major adjustments had to be made to Eastern Oregon’s forest plans around the same time as the Northwest Forest Plan. Recognizing the need to address the rampant degradation of wildlife habitat across the region, the Eastside Screens were put in place. Among efforts to maintain wildlife habitat, the Screens protected trees 21 inches in diameter or larger. These protections have many ecological benefits, and they also helped focus the agency and communities on building common ground, rather than fighting over old-growth logging.
Forest plans may indicate areas dedicated to protecting wildlife habitat, like here in the Blue Mountains.
Covering 5.5 million acres, the three National Forests of Eastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains – the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman – have been grouped together for revision. Starting in the early 2000s, a series of failed efforts at plan revisions have provided a sneak peek of the agency’s intentions. In those previous processes, the Forest Service had an opportunity to find a balance that protected undeveloped areas, embraced new science, and brought management of these public lands in line with the modern era. Instead, their proposals adopted an outdated vision of rural economics by prioritizing extractive industries like logging and livestock, while de-emphasizing the importance of natural and cultural values like clean water, recreation, salmon, wildlife, quality of life, and carbon storage.
The Forest Service has re-initiated a new revision process for the Blue Mountains very much in character with their previous attempts. A lot is at stake in this incredibly diverse region identified by scientists as being of global importance for wildlife connectivity and carbon storage. These forests have long been subject to logging, excessive road building, overgrazing, and the exclusion of natural fires. Their recovery from past abuse, and the promise of a healthy future – for the forests, streams, wildlife, and people who depend on this landscape – hangs on a new plan’s outcome.
A huge project covering 87,000 acres, called Morgan Nesbit, is being planned here under the guidance of the 30-year-old Forest Management Plan. In contrast to the constraints embraced by the Siuslaw National Forest, a proposed amendment to the Wallowa-Whitman Forest Plan would allow logging of steep slopes and the largest 3% of trees that remain.
Forest plans lay out where timber harvest is allowed and for what purposes. This timber sale marker on the Willamette National Forest was, unfortunately, in a mature forest.
Limits and opportunities
While forest plans are incredibly consequential, they’re rarely perfect. Most are a compromise. For example, the Northwest Forest Plan, though celebrated for providing some protections for wildlife habitat and ancient forests, still allowed logging and road building in ecologically critical areas and did not fully protect mature and old-growth forests.
Forest plans are also subject to amendments and rule changes, directed by changing presidential administrations and agency discretion. The NWFP area saw rule changes that increased logging under the Bush administration. In Eastern Oregon, piecemeal amendments are often made to accommodate logging the largest trees under the guise of “restoration” and fuel reduction. The Trump administration tried to do away with those protections entirely.
Revisions and amendments to forest plans can be a good opportunity to reflect evolving public values and offer beneficial guidance for managing our public lands for clean water, natural ecosystems, wildlife connectivity, climate stability, fire resilience, and more. Rather than loosening standards, what we need from forest plans are more enforceable sideboards that ensure the protection of large trees and mature forests, water, and connected wildlife habitat. They should make the case for Wilderness or Wild and Scenic River protection, and set the stage for the landscape-scale preservation of natural areas and restoration of ecosystems necessary to address the dual climate and biodiversity crises and help meet national land and water conservation goals. Destructive activities like commercial logging, livestock grazing, backcountry fire suppression, and maintaining high road densities should be reduced.
With these sideboards in place, the Forest Service can focus on real restoration of watersheds that prepare for the return of salmon to their native streams, connecting habitats for species that need to migrate to adapt to climate change, and enhancing habitat degraded by mismanagement. But given the process and outcomes we’ve seen from recent revision efforts that always seem to move toward greater agency discretion and less conservation, it’s hard to feel optimistic that the Forest Service is heading in that direction.
This is why, at the same time, we need strong Administrative direction and durable protections for the landscapes, forests, and waterways that are so important for the future of biodiversity and a livable planet. To achieve this, Oregon Wild’s ongoing campaigns can complement and direct where forest plans go.
Our Climate Forest Campaign is working to create a strong national rule to ensure forest plans protect mature and old-growth forests. Without a rule, the Forest Service has struggled to implement the vision of President Biden to protect these forests as a climate solution, and instead continues to plan and implement destructive logging projects across the country.
With the Nez Perce Tribe and other conservation allies, we went to court and defeated an illegal effort to undermine forest plan protections for the largest 3% of trees left in Eastern Oregon. Now we’re working together to scale back piecemeal amendments to allow destructive logging proposals like Morgan Nesbit.
We are working to pass Wilderness and Wild & Scenic River designations across the state. These are the best ways to protect Oregon’s remaining wildlands and waters for their many ecological and cultural values. Forest plans can ensure these areas are not degraded and support the case for their permanent protection until legislation is passed.
Together, we have a long history of speaking up for our vision and values. We’ll be counting on you to let the Forest Service and elected leaders know what you value about our national forests and public lands.
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