Bureau of Land Management Withdraws Timber Sale Project

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has withdrawn a timber project east of Eugene, Ore. after three environmental groups filed a lawsuit last November claiming the BLM had failed to consider the project’s impact on water quality and spotted owl habitat—and also carbon storage.

The project had included logging, thinning and forest management activities on about 4,600 acres in the Calapooia and Mohawk River watersheds, although timber harvest was limited to only 1,050 acres. Observers note that agency officials supported the project initially, claiming “no significant impacts” in July, but quietly withdrew the project in mid December after the suit was filed.