For Immediate Release, November 26, 2013

Contact: Randi Spivak, (310) 779-4894

Senator Wyden's O&C Lands Bill Would Unravel More Than Two Decades of Progress in
Managing Northwest Forests
 

Following is a statement from Randi Spivak, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s public lands program, on Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D.-Ore.) O&C legislative draft proposal on management of 2.1 million acres of public forests in western Oregon:

“Senator Wyden’s draft bill will hurt forests, watersheds and species. Our streams will get dirtier, our views will get uglier, and species will be pushed further toward extinction. The senator’s draft legislation would result in fewer old-growth forests in the future than exist today.

“This draft proposal would undo the delicate but durable compromise that has been the Northwest Forest Plan since 1995 and result in more controversy, not less. If Senator Wyden proceeds with the bill as drafted, it could reignite the Pacific Northwest timber wars.”

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 625,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


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