IVM Late Successional Reserve Logging Scheme Goes to Court On April 2nd

For Immediate Release

March 26, 2024

Medford, Oregon

At 2:00 on April 2nd at the Federal courthouse in Medford Oregon there will be oral arguments challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) “Integrated Vegetation Management” (IVM) program that would aggressively log forest stands located within Late Successional Reserves areas purportedly set aside for forest conservation. In particular, IVM authorizes so-called “gap creation” and “open seral” logging prescriptions within mature and old-growth forests that are fire-resilient and provide important habitat wildlife species.

Community members and neighbors impacted by the BLM’s logging agenda are expected to rally at the courthouse at 1:00 in support of protecting the old-growth forests targeted by the Medford BLM.

“BLM timber planners can dance around it all they want,” said George Sexton, KS Wild Conservation Director, “but it’s crystal clear that gap creation logging creates clearcuts that remove habitat and increase fire hazard.”

The first commercial IVM timber sales called Penn Butte and Late Mungers are scheduled to be auctioned off to the timber industry on May15th. These timber sales are located in the Williams Late Successional Reserve and would remove over 400-acres of old-growth habitat through “open seral” logging and another 51 acres through “gap creation” clearcutting.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service Biological Opinion for Late Mungers concluded that the proposed old-growth logging is “likely to adversely affect” spotted owls and their designated critical habitat.

“The forests targeted for removal in Late Mungers are resilient, healthy, and most important they are designated as reserves for conservation, not timber supply,” said Doug Heiken, Conservation and Restoration Coordinator for Oregon Wild. “If we want to store carbon and provide habitat this is the place for careful conservation, not aggressive logging.”

“If the BLM is interested in real fire-focused restoration, we would be fully supportive,” stated Cascadia Wildlands Legal Director Nick Cady, “but aggressively logging wildlife habitat in the Late Successional Reserves that will increase fire hazard for the surrounding community is ridiculous. It demonstrates that this agency does not care what this community has been through and is only concerned with producing timber volume.”