Oregon’s 2025 legislative session is heading into its final weeks, and LandWatch is proud to report that it’s shaping up to be a good year for us in Salem.

The combined effects of a warmer and drier climate, more people living in fire-prone areas and vegetation and debris built up over years of fire suppression are leading to more severe fires that spread faster and put people, wild lands and economies at risk. Prescribed burns are a solution, but the U.S. Forest Service need the staffing, data and research to carry them out.

Wildfire is essential in our landscape, and an expected element of living, working, and playing in Central Oregon. As we plan for the future, we must learn to coexist with fire.

Jeremy Orr, Director of Litigation and Advocacy Partnerships at Earthjustice from Earthjustice, and attorneys from Crag Law Center and Advocates for the West will join Central Oregon LandWatch to examine the Trump administration’s motivations with regard to national forest management and explain how the environmental justice community is pushing back against questionable, dangerous or illegal moves. 

In the first month of the new administration, environmental advocates have faced a maelstrom of threats to the foundations of environmental protection and community well-being. 

At LandWatch, we are determined to stay focused on the positive changes we can affect. We are here to defend the land and water of Central Oregon and ensure a livable future for all its residents — and we won’t settle for anything less.

LandWatch’s new Livable Future Forum will provide a place for discussion and dialogue about the key environmental issues of our time and the solutions that we can put into place locally. On Oct 3, 2024, we will talk about the factors leading to local mule deer population decline and the critically-needed solutions available to help them.

In August, the U.S. Forest Service issued its final decision regarding an important timber sale on the Ochoco National Forest — and we’re pleased to report that the Forest Service ultimately made significant improvements to the Mill Creek project, providing meaningful safeguards for forest ecosystems and the wildlife that depend upon them.

LandWatch and partners across the country are calling on the Forest Service to strengthen protections for the United States’ remaining old-growth and mature forests.

Join us by adding your name to our petition today!

Creating wildlife crossings is a practical, cost-effective move that is also an act of empathy that insists that animals have a right to safety, just as we humans do.

On March 29, essential protections for large trees in eastern Oregon and eastern Washington were fully reinstated!

This past fall, we were concerned to see a series of projects proposing large tree logging across a total of 73,000 acres on the Ochoco National Forest.

What do we want Deschutes County to look like in 20 years? The County is asking for your input on its draft update to the Comprehensive Plan.

On August 31, a federal judge made a sweeping recommendation to set aside an illegal Forest Service rule change made under the Trump administration.

Today, a federal judge made a sweeping recommendation to set aside an illegal Forest Service change to the Eastside Screens - a longstanding set of rules to protect old growth on six national forests in Eastern Oregon and Washington.

Will the Forest Service choose to be a dedicated partner on wildlife crossing projects in Central Oregon?

Reducing hiding cover to 13% in migration corridors is a drastic loss of habitat. This is only a fraction of the necessary forest cover mule deer need to survive.

We’ve been monitoring the Green Ridge Project proposed by the Forest Service since 2017. This project involves thinning and logging on nearly 25,000 acres of national forest just north of Sisters in the Metolius Watershed. 

The Cougar Rock Project is a proposed project located near Black Butte on the Deschutes National Forest that proposes to conduct “thinning, mowings, and prescribed burning” on around 3,000 acres, primarily within mule deer winter range. 

After nearly a year, oral argument was held before Magistrate Judge Halmann on May 1. We were represented by Crag Law Center at the U.S District Court in Pendleton, challenging the Forest Service’s unlawful repeal of the “21-inch rule” that opened up over 7 million acres of national forest to large-tree logging.

Environmental groups, including LandWatch, delivered more than 122,000 public comments urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to protect mature and old-growth forests and trees on federal public lands from logging as a cornerstone of U.S. climate policy.