What happens with the Northwest Forest Plan is important to all of us. We need a strong Plan to protect our remaining mature and old-growth forests and the many imperiled species that depend on that forest habitat for survival. We also need it to protect our collective interest in clean air, drinkable water, and the climate stabilizing benefits forests provide by storing and sequestering vast amounts of carbon.
Take Action
In the new year, there will be opportunities to comment directly on the Plan. But right now, we need Congress on high alert to ensure a Plan that prioritizes wildlife, climate, and ancient forests…not logging at all costs.
Please email your Representative and Senators Merkley and Wyden and ask them to use their power in Congress to fight attempts to weaken the Northwest Forest Plan.
Contact Info and Key Talking Points below.
Contact Info:
Senator Jeff Merkley
https://www.merkley.senate.gov/connect/contact/
Senator Ron Wyden
https://www.wyden.senate.gov/contact/email-ron
Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici – First Congressional District
https://bonamici.house.gov/contact/email
Congressman Cliff Bentz – 2nd Congressional District
https://bentz.house.gov/contact
Congressman Earl Blumenauer – 3rd Congressional District
https://blumenauerforms.house.gov/forms/writeyourrep/
Congresswoman Val Hoyle – 4th Congressional District
https://hoyle.house.gov/contact/email-val?clear
Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer – 5th Congressional District
https://chavez-deremer.house.gov/address_authentication?form=/contact
Congresswoman Andrea Salinas – 6th Congressional District
https://salinas.house.gov/address_authentication?form=/contact
Talking Points:
- Please use your power in Congress to oppose efforts to weaken the Northwest Forest Plan. Any changes to the Plan must safeguard mature and old-growth forests as biodiversity strongholds and essential natural carbon and climate solutions for future generations.
- For 30 years, the Northwest Forest Plan has protected Oregon’s mature and old-growth forests and the wildlife that depends on those forests for survival. It largely halted the unchecked clearcutting that threatened to destroy our forests and drive species to extinction – and that ignited the timber wars.
- Now the US Forest Service is proposing an amendment to the Plan that prioritizes and accelerates logging, and puts our forests, fish, wildlife, clean water, and climate at risk.
- The Northwest Forest Plan brought some accountability and stability to the management of our public National Forests. Allowing the Trump Administration to finalize a weakened version of the Plan will undo decades of process and return to the region to conflict and instability.
- If allowed to advance its preferred proposal, the US Forest Service would:
-
- Exploit these forests to double, and potentially triple, commercial logging volumes;
- Shift the primary purpose of the Plan from recovering and restoring more old-growth across the landscape to protecting only the little old-growth that remains today;
- Redefine “mature” and “old-growth” forests to weaken protections and increase logging;
- Log mature forests in reserves meant to protect fish, wildlife, and drinking water;
- Aggressively log mature and old-growth forests outside of reserves.
-
- We support the elements of the proposed amendment that direct the Forest Service to better engage with the Tribes through consultation, co-stewardship agreements, and the integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and prescribed fire into Forest Service management practices. But these provisions need not be tied to dramatic attacks on conservation measures within the Plan.
- The proposed amendment ignores its duty to ensure protections for imperiled species – including those listed as threatened and endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
- It likewise fails to meaningfully address climate change, which was cited as one of the key reasons for amending the Plan in the first place. Any amendment must recognize and protect the ability of our forests to sequester and store carbon.
