Working to Protect Red Tree Voles
We joined our conservation partners to inform the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that we intend to sue over the agency’s denial of Endangered Species Act protections to the imperiled North Oregon Coast population of red tree voles.
According to the best available science, red tree voles are preposterously adorable. These pocket-sized rodents live mostly in mature Douglas firs where they feast on the tree’s needles. North Coast voles exist in small and isolated populations that are threatened by logging and climate-change-fueled wildfires—both of which fragment their habitat and reduce their ability to disperse.
Despite acknowledging these threats, USFWS has failed to take steps to protect the species. The initial petition to protect red tree voles under the Endangered Species Act was filed in 2007. Over the last 17 years, the agency has dragged its heels, determined the species did deserve protections, changed its mind, got sued, agreed to reconsider, then once again denied protections.
We are suing to ensure that USFWS does its job to protect imperiled species. Red tree voles can’t afford more politicking and bureaucratic delays while their forest home is razed. We are joined in this effort by the Center for Biological Diversity, Cascadia Wildlands, and Oregon Wild.
A Historic Win for the Elliott State Forest (and Marbled Murrelets)!
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling from the District Court of Oregon that prevents Scott Timber Co. from clear-cutting old-growth forest within Oregon’s Elliott State Forest. The court held that the proposed logging of the 355-acre Benson Ridge parcel would harm threatened Marbled Murrelets in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The case marks the first time a private timber company has been held to account in court for potential violations of the federal Endangered Species Act in Oregon. This is a huge deal, and the culmination of years of litigation.
In 2012, after Oregon increased logging on the 82,000-acre Elliott State Forest, we sued the state for illegally logging occupied Marbled Murrelet habitat. After a judge issued a legal injunction, the state settled the suit in 2014, agreeing to drop 26 timber sales and stop logging in occupied murrelet habitat. But the state turned around and sold the Benson Ridge parcel and two other tracts, totaling 1,453 acres, even though they contained mature and old-growth forests that were occupied by imperiled Marbled Murrelets.
The Benson Ridge case was filed in 2016 claiming violations of the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits “take”—harm, harassment, or killing— of threatened species like the Marbled Murrelet. Unlike other seabirds, murrelets nest on the wide, mossy branches of large, old-growth trees, making a daily trip of up to 35 miles inland to bring fish to their young.
We were joined by Cascadia Wildlands and the Center for Biological Diversity as plaintiffs in this lawsuit. And we were represented by Daniel Kruse of Kruse & Saint Marie LLC, Daniel Snyder of Public Justice, Nick Cady of Cascadia Wildlands, and Brian Segee of the Center for Biological Diversity.
