The Trump administration is proposing significant changes to how the federal government manages forests across western Oregon, including Bureau of Land Management lands near Philomath such as Marys Peak and Alsea Falls, with a public comment period closing March 23.
The BLM published a notice of intent to revise resource management plans that have governed logging and conservation on 2.5 million acres of forests across 17 Oregon counties for decades. The plans were last updated in 2016. About three-quarters of those acres are currently protected from regular logging.
Feds propose opening millions of acres of western Oregon forests to 1960s logging levels
Federal officials are attempting to open up millions of acres of forests in western Oregon for “maximum” timber production to “advance Trump administration priorities,” including areas that are home to federally protected, vulnerable species, the Bureau of Land Management announced. The agency on Thursday shared in a notice of intent that officials will propose new…
The notice indicated the agency could return those acres to 1960s harvest levels, which would represent a significant increase over recent decades.
The agency is seeking to increase its sustained yield timber harvest to around 1 billion board feet annually, matching production levels prior to conservation restrictions put in place in the 1990s. OPB reported that last year, logging on those lands yielded around 250 million board feet.
“Bringing timber production back to historic levels is essential for reviving local economies and reducing the threat of catastrophic wildfires,” Bill Groffy, acting director of the BLM, said in a statement. “President Trump has made it clear — enhanced domestic timber production is vital for our national security, economic prosperity and effective wildfire management.”
Travis Joseph, president of the American Forest Resource Council, a trade association for the commercial logging industry, said in an OPB article that the BLM lands in western Oregon grow significantly more timber each year than is currently harvested, contributing to overstocked forest conditions and increasing wildfire risk across much of the region. He called them some of the most productive timberlands in the world.
Conservation groups have raised objections to the proposal. Oregon Wild specifically named Marys Peak and Alsea Falls among public lands it says would be threatened. BLM forests flank the Coast Range, Cascade foothills and Siskiyou mountains from Portland to Ashland and are considered some of the most biologically productive lands in the Pacific Northwest, providing habitat for coho salmon, marbled murrelets and northern spotted owls.
“The public does not want to go back to the days of rampant old-growth clearcutting. They don’t want to go back to dead salmon and polluted rivers, or see their favorite places on public lands liquidated in order to maximize profits for the greedy few,” Chandra LeGue, an advocate with Oregon Wild, said in a press release.
In a story published by Oregon Live, Bev Law, a forest scientist and professor emerita at Oregon State University, called the plan to return to harvest levels of 1 billion board feet annually “insanity,” arguing the forests are among the most effective carbon-storing ecosystems in the world.
The scoping comment period closes March 23. The agency does not plan to hold any public meetings. Scoping comments shape the alternatives the BLM is required to analyze in its environmental impact statement.
Comments can be submitted online at eplanning.blm.gov (Project Number DOI-BLM-ORWA-0000-2026-0001-RMP-EIS) or by email at BLM_OR_Revision_Scoping@blm.gov.