A federal judge has handed the Oregon timber industry two big victories relating to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) timberland designations and management in the state. In one decision Judge Richard Leon ruled that President Barack Obama’s executive order expanding the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument on O&C (BLM) lands, finding that no President can override Federal law and an Act of Congress. The expansion included 40,000 acres of BLM land, of which 17,000 were open for timber harvesting before inclusion in the monument. In reversing earlier federal magistrate’s ruling, the court found that the O&C Act mandate to manage the lands for permanent forest production “cannot be rescinded by Presidential Proclamation.”
In another case the same federal judge invalidated BLM’s 2016 Western Oregon Resource Management plans (RMPs) because they don’t meet the clear mandate of the O&C Act to manage BLM timberland—more than 2 million acres in Western Oregon—on the basis of sustained yield forestry. Revenues from the O&C lands are shared with Oregon counties to support essential public services including law enforcement, search and rescue, public health, and youth and senior services.
Officials with the American Forest Resource Council (AFRC), which brought the lawsuits in both cases, are excited about the rulings and what they mean for rural communities, Oregon workers, and federal forest management precedent moving forward. According to AFRC President Travis Joseph, “Forest policy in the Pacific Northwest is complex. But these important legal decisions are crystal clear. The federal O&C Act means exactly what it says, the management plans for these unique Oregon forestlands are illegal, and the expansion of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument exceeds any president’s unilateral authority. These are major wins for the rule of law and rational, science-based forest management.”