Suit Slams Oregon Logging Plan for Harm to Northern Spotted Owl

Three environmental groups brought a lawsuit in federal district court to stop a logging project in southwest Oregon, alleging federal agencies approved the 8,000-acre timber cut despite potential harms to the endangered northern spotted owl.

Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Oregon Wild, and Cascadia Wildlands said the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management analyzed the potential impacts in less than half of the bird’s critical habitat slated for the Last Chance Forest Management Project, according to a complaint filed Tuesday.

The project would mature old-growth forest and build 28 miles of new roads in Josephine County, Ore., the suit filed in the US District Court for the District of Oregon said.

The agencies authorized logging in “serpentine ecosystems that provide essential habitat for imperiled species, and will increase wildfire risk in portions of the project area for the next two decades,” the groups said.

The lawsuit accuses the FWS of using outdated science and nesting data to conclude there would be “zero incidental take” of the spotted owls, and both the wildlife agency and bureau violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not preparing a more stringent environmental impact statement before giving the project the green light.

The lawsuit asks the court to vacate the environmental study and biological opinion and block the project.

The FWS and bureau didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The groups are represented by the Western Environmental Law Center.

The case is Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Ctr. v. Burgum, D. Or., No. 1:25-cv-02296, complaint filed 12/9/25