MAJOR UPDATES: JUDGE RULES FOREST SERVICE VIOLATED THE LAW. PROTECTIONS RESTORED FOR NOW:

• August, 2023 Press Release: Judge rules Forest Service violated the law in rolling back forest protections
• August 2023 NPR News: Judge: Trump-era rule change allowing the logging of old-growth forests violates laws
• March 29, 2024: Judge Fully Reinstates Protections (Judge's ruling here, additional articles below)

• FAQ's:
  • Summary FAQ
  • Comprehensive FAQ
• Additional Resources:
  • Science
  • Conservation Advocacy
  • Tribal Comments
  • Presentations
  • Media
  • Blogs, other

     

• Science:
  • Large Trees: Oregon's Bio-cultural Legacy Essential to Wildlife, Clean Water, and Carbon Storage
    • Comprehensive report highlights the importance of large trees leads to management recommendations very different from the new Trump Screens amendment. 
  • Frontiers in Global Climate Change: Large Trees Dominate Carbon Storage in Forests East of the Cascade Crest in the United States Pacific Northwest
    • Research shows large trees in Eastern Oregon are disproportionately important in storing carbon.
  • Society for Conservation Biology: Protect large trees for climate mitigation, biodiversity, and forest resilience
    • _{Independent analysis shows the Forest Service's own data undermines its fundamental justification for the rule change.}
  • Nature: Strategic Forest Reserves can protect biodiversity in the western United States and mitigate climate change
    • Scientists concerned about the climate and biodiversity crises make the case for protecting large and old trees across the west.
  • Forest Ecology & Management: Quantifying regional trends in large live tree and snag availability in support of forest management
    • More research calls into question the long-term impacts of large tree logging in Eastern Oregon.
  • Report to Congress: Interim Protection for Late-Successional Forests, Fisheries and Watersheds (full paper here)
    • The scientific report that led to large tree protections in Eastern Oregon recommended far more comprehensive and stringent protections.

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• Conservation Advocacy:
  • Open Letter to The Forest Service on the Importance of Large, Old Trees and Forests
    • 115 independent scientists sign a letter calling the USFS proposal to amend large tree protections "misguided".
  • Leadership concerns
    • The former Deputy Chief of the US Forest Service raises serious concerns about the process, policy, and substance of the effort to undermine the Eastside Screens.
  • Chart a New Path
    • Members of the Eastside Forest Coalition call on the Forest Service to abide by judicial rulings and work in good faith with all members of the public to craft defensible and durable protections for large and old trees. (04/17/2024)
  • Protect Big Trees
    • Central Oregon Advocates led by Central Oregon LandWatch developed a briefing paper on the Trump Screens.
  • Conservation Comments
    • 25 conservation organizations provide comments to the USFS on the Screens amendment process.
  • Don't adopt Trump Screens
    • 33 organizations including conservation, indigenous, public health, and climate groups call on the incoming Biden administration to stop the process of adopting the Trump Screens. Hours later, a Trump appointee signed a decision taking that authority away from the Forest Service.
  • Local Groups: Withdraw Trump Screens
    • Conservation groups actively working in Eastern Oregon formally ask the Biden Administration to withdraw the Trump Screens under the President's Climate Executive Order.
  • National Groups: Withdraw Trump Screens
    • Conservation groups from around the country call on the Biden Administration to undo Trump Administration rollbacks including the Screens.
  • Standing Tall: Eastern Oregon Forests at Risk
    • In the fall of 2020, Oregon Wild shares a comprehensive update including a story from the field showing how things might look if the USFS amends protections for large trees in Eastern Oregon (page 4).
  • Slow Down
    • In August, 2020, Oregon Senators Ron Wyden & Jeff Merkley ask the USFS to provide more opportunities for the public to weigh in on proposed changes to the Eastside Screens.
  • Do Better
    • Also in August, 2020, Conservation groups call for a better process in considering potential changes to the Eastside Screens.
  • Conservationists Call on USFS to Stop Eastside Screen Revision Process
    • In July of 2020, 27 conservation organizations raise initial concerns about the effort to revise the Eastside Screens.
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• Tribal Comments
  • Nez Perce Tribe
  • Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
  • Klamath Tribe

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• Presentations:
  • Forever 21? Trumps Attack on Eastern Oregon
    • Conservation advocates give a presentation with Q&A on the Trump Screens at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference.
  • The Role of Large Trees in Carbon Storage in Forests East of the Cascade Crest
    • Dr. David Mildrexler, a scientist from Eastern Oregon Legacy Lands presents his research on the importance of large trees in Eastern Oregon in the context of the Trump Screens.
  • Webcast: Taking a Stand Against Trump's Environmental Rollbacks in Oregon
    • In the fall of 2020, and with the support of conservation allies, Oregon Wild hosted a webinar on Trump's attacks on the environment with a special focus on the screens.
  • Owls and Old Growth of Eastern Oregon
    • Mixing art, science, and policy Oregon Wild guests talk about the importance of big old trees. 

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• Media:
  • Oregon Public Broadcasting, 4/2/2024: Federal judge finalizes protections for large trees east of the Cascades (judge's order here) 
     
  • Associated Press via NPR, 9/1/2023: Judge: Trump-era rule change allowing the logging of old-growth forests violates laws
     
  • Press release: 8/31/2023: Conservation groups give their take on Judge's ruling that the Forest Service violated the law in undermining the Screens.
     
  • The Conversation, 3/9/2023: The Biden administration has called for protecting mature US forests to slow climate change, but it’s still allowing them to be logged
     
  • Oregon Capital Chronicle 8/9/2022: Logging interests now dominate forest collaboratives
     
  • Media on Legal Challenge:
    • Press Release, 6/14/2022: Conservation groups file legal challenge to restore protections for wildlife, water, and large trees in Eastern Oregon and Washington
    • Associated Press, 6/14/2022: Conservation groups sue feds to protect old-growth forests
    • OPB, 6/14/2022: Lawsuit challenges rollback of large tree protections east of the Cascades
    • Baker City Herald, 6/14/2022: Groups file suit seeking to overturn Trump administration decision to allow logging of big trees
    • Washington Post, 6/15/2022: A timber sale in Oregon tests Biden’s pledge to protect older trees
    • Columbia Insight, 6/21/2022: Government exploiting fire fears to back old growth logging, say conservationists
    • Bend Bulletin, 7/1/2022: Guest Column: To save Oregon's big trees, we're suing the Forest Service
    • East Oregon Media Group via Wallowa Chieftain, 7/4/2022: Other Views: Compromise only goes so far before action needed
       
  • Oregon Capitol Chronicle, 5/30/2022: Commentary: Leaders need to be faithful to intent of Oregon’s forest collaborations
     
  • OPB, 12/24/2021: Oregon Scientists call for more protection to fight climate change, save species.
     
  • PBS video, 10/18/21: The Surprising Truth Behind Planting Trees and Climate Change
     
  • Phys.org, 4/7/21: Curb climate change the easy way: Don't cut down big trees
     
  • Washington Post: Tracking Biden's Environmental Actions
     
  • OPB, 1/20/21: Whither Eastside Screens? New guidelines allow cutting larger trees east of the Cascades
     
  • Blue Mountain Eagle, 1/19/21: Forest Service Axes 21-inch rule
     
  • Baker City Herald, 1/18/21: Forest Service ends ban on logging large trees
     
  • OPB, 11/10/20: Eastern Oregon trees are playing an outsized role in curbing climate change: study
     
  • EurekaAlert, 11/5/20: Large trees dominate carbon storage in forests
     
  • Columbia Insight, 10/22/20: The secret power of old-growth
     
  • Columbia Insight, 8/20/20: Forest Service wants to eliminate protections on large trees
     
  • Oregon Wild Press Release, 8/21/20: Trump Administration Proposes Rollback of Old Growth Protections in Eastern Oregon
     
  • OPB, 8/12/20: Trump administration wants to relax environmental protections for old, large trees in Eastern Oregon
     
  • Press release and letters, 6/23/20: Conservation Groups Withdraw from Northern Blues Forest Collaborative

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• Blogs, other:
  • Old Growth Logging in the Malheur National Forest
    • Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project followed up on a project touted by the Trump Screens team and collaborators as a model for what the new rules would mean. What they discovered was disturbing.
  • Big Trees in Eastern Oregon & Washington
    • Short video highlighting perspectives of rural Oregonians and scientists.
  • Forever 21?
    • Oregon Wild Blog on the Development of the Trump Screens.
  • Wyden and Merkley
    • Senators Wyden and Merkley weigh in on the Trump Screens amendment in the summer of 2022
    • Conservation Response: 7 conservation groups respond to Wyden and Merkley's statements (08/30/2022)
  • The Forest Service Doth Protest Too Much
    • In October, 2021, conservationists fact-checked Forest Service claims about the Trump Screens.
  • Notice of approval
    • Sandwiched between the capital insurrection and the Biden inauguration, Trump appointee, James Hubbard signed this decision to end public process and replace the long-standing Eastside Screens with a new rule allowing the logging of large and old trees on over 14,000 square miles of public lands in Eastern Oregon and Washington.
  • 21" Wildlife Screens: Proposed Changes
    • Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project reacts to the first proposal to reduce protections for large and old trees in Eastern Oregon.
  • Big Trees & Your Comments are Important
    • As the Trump Forest Service team began finalizing a proposal to weaken the Eastside Screens, Greater Hells Canyon Council took a deep dive into the legal aspects about the process.
  • Preliminary Environmental Assessment
    • In August 2020, the USFS put out an initial proposal to weaken the Eastside Screens.
  • Management Direction for Large Diameter Trees in Eastern OR & Southeastern WA
    • The USFS website on the changes to the Screens. This includes many links and much of the public record.
  • Big Trees Oregon
    • A website focused on protecting big trees, wildlife, and water and the impacts of the Trump Screens.
  • Andy Kerr: Amending the Eastside Screens, Part 1: A Quarter Century of “Interim” Management
    • Part 1 of a 3-part series from conservationist Andy Kerr.
  • Amending the Eastside Screens, Part 2: The Science of Management and the Management of Science
    • Part 2 of a 3-part series from conservationist Andy Kerr.
  • Amending the Eastside Screens, Part 3: Reignition of the Eastside Forest War or Slight Midcourse Correction?
    • The conclusion of a 3-part series on the Screens from conservation advocate Andy Kerr.

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