The boundary between private timberland and public BLM land.
On February 19th, the Trump administration announced plans to revise the Western Oregon BLM management plans. Their stated goal is to return logging to 1970s and 80s levels — when agencies were clear-cutting roughly 3 square miles of old-growth per week.
These BLM forests aren’t some distant wilderness — they’re right outside our backdoors. The Coast Range, Cascade foothills, Siskiyou mountains from Portland down to Ashland — some of the most biologically rich land in the Pacific Northwest. Coho salmon, marbled murrelets, spotted owls. Connectivity corridors between the sea of private clearcuts surrounding them.
Places like Molalla River, Marys Peak, Crabtree Valley, Alsea Falls — I’ve been to these spots. A lot of us have. They provide clean drinking water, recreation, and habitat that just doesn’t exist anywhere else nearby.
The Trump administration is floating a proposal that would take us back to the clearcut-old-growth era — unsustainable harvest levels, damaged streams, increased fire risk, and carved-up hillsides around rural communities that are already dealing with enough.
This needs pushback. I’m not affiliated with any group on this — just someone who gives a damn about these forests and thinks people should know what’s on the table.
