Court Rejects Oregon ‘Blue and Gold’ Logging Project Approval

The Bureau of Land Management illegally allowed logging in old-growth forests in Oregon, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai of the US District Court for the District of Oregon vacated the bureau’s Blue and Gold timber project approval in western Oregon and the agency’s environmental analysis of logging there.

Cascadia Wildlands, Umpqua Watersheds, and Oregon Wild argued that the 3,000-acre logging project would irreparably damage rare old-growth forest harboring threatened northern spotted owls.

The Blue and Gold Project was approved by the Biden administration, but logging in the ...