A battle is unfolding in the Pacific Northwest over some of the most beautiful and ecologically important public lands that you’ve likely never heard of – the Blue Mountains of the Pacific Northwest. PFPI’s US Director of Science and Policy lives in the Blue Mountains, and a recent article in Columbia Insight highlights how PFPI-led research is helping to show what’s at stake in this large, diverse region where big trees are crucial for carbon storage, mountains supply the region’s water supply, and roadless forests stretch from the Cascades to the Rockies forming a wildlife corridor of continental-scale importance.

The US Forest Service is revising the Forest Plans for three National Forests that cover over five million acres in the Blue Mountains. After multiple efforts to revise these plans and more than ten years of engagement by Tribes, conservation groups, scientists, local governments, the public and Agency staff to produce a quality plan worthy of this incredible region facing major challenges, the Forest Service has opted to eliminate virtually all science from the plans and prioritize resource extraction over all values and other uses.

The Forest Service’s preferred alternative would quadruple logging, ramp up mining, and crowd even more grazing cattle into our national forests. It would eliminate protections for old growth and large trees, throw out road-density standards that help elk navigate and find security amidst the massive road network left over from a century of destructive logging, shrink riparian protections for salmon and steelhead that are struggling to survive, and get rid of protections for over 700,000 acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas throughout the region- the roadless heart and soul of the Blue Mountains. This is what failure looks like. Our children and future generations deserve better than a race to the bottom for the short-term benefit of billionaires.

PFPI’s study shows that a path toward a holistic vision of conservation where nature and people thrive together begins with protecting the irreplaceable Inventoried Roadless Areas and intact forests that are vital to regional and planetary health and crucial to water supplies. A science-based alternative would protect the large and old trees that are the cornerstones of ecological function, diversity, and resilience for the entire forest community, store massive amounts of carbon, cool the environment, and are the most fire resistant trees in the forest. It would recommend designating new Wilderness for key areas and establish corridors linking protected areas, helping to prepare our region for unimaginable climate change that we’ve already locked in. It would safeguard elk and other wildlife habitat by following guidelines based on decades of research in the forest ecosystems of the Blue Mountains. 

Just as the justifications for rescinding the Roadless Rule are fiscally misguided and ecologically flawed, so is the Forest Service’s plan for the Blue Mountains. The comment period is open through Sept. 20th. Here’s how you can take action to defend the Blue Mountains.