Newly implemented logging plan faces two lawsuits

The McKenzie Flyfishers and Pacific Rivers Council will file suit in Federal Court on Thursday against the Bureau of Land Management over the agency’s new plan to increase logging in Western Oregon.

The local club that promotes the sport of fly fishing rarely gets involved in lawsuits, but has followed the BLM’s plan, known as the Western Oregon Plan Revision, since learning about it at a McKenzie Watershed Council meeting more than a year ago, said Jeff DeVore conservation co-chairman for the club.

After several years of working on a new logging strategy that would increase revenue to counties where the forests are located, the BLM finalized the proposal with a record of decision signed at the end of 2008.

“We’ve gone on record saying they aren’t listening to the peer reviews and the other scientists that are saying all the things that can really go wrong,” with the increase in logging, DeVore said.

“This plan tries to prop up the timber industry at the direct expense of clean water and salmon,” said Chris Frissell, of the Pacific Rivers Council, a Portland-based conservation group.

Besides filing the lawsuit, which alleges several violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, the two groups have sent an additional notice to the BLM of an intent to sue over the agency’s failure to consult with the other agencies over the possible harm to species listed as threatened or endangered that might result from increased logging.