Oregon Logging Project Would Harm Small Seabird, Court Affirms

Three timber companies that sought to log an Oregon forest can be permanently barred from doing so under the Endangered Species Act, a federal appeals court affirmed Wednesday.

Logging in the forest would harm marbled murrelets, a small seabird listed as threatened under the ESA, by impairing their ability to breed, the US District Court for the District of Oregon had previously ruled. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld that decision, writing that the lower court had correctly found the timber companies’ proposed actions would cause a “take” of the birds, the ESA’s standard of harm to a species it protects.

The decision affirmed a permanent injunction against logging the land, a 49-acre old-growth stand near the Pacific Ocean that was once part of a state forest before it was sold to timber companies as part of the larger Benson Ridge parcel in 2014.

Logging in that forest could have been particularly harmful to marbled murrelets because of their unusual breeding habits, according to the court.

“Murrelets do not build nests but lay a single egg on thick, flat tree branches with natural depressions and moss,” Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote. “Usually, only very large trees within old growth forests contain suitable platforms for murrelet nesting.”

McKeown was joined by Judges Jay S. Bybee and Daniel A. Bress on the panel hearing the appeal.

Kruse & Saint Marie LLC, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Public Justice, and the Center for Biological Diversity represented the environmental groups who brought the suit. Carollo Law Group represented the timber companies.

The case is Cascadia Wildlands v. Scott Timber Co., 9th Cir., No. 6:16-cv-01710, Decision 6/26/24.