On February 19, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) filed a notice of intent to revise the 2016 Northwestern and Coastal Oregon Resource Management Plan and 2016 Southwestern Oregon Resource Management Plan. These revisions aim to increase forest production across roughly 2.5 million acres of public lands across western Oregon – including BLM administered areas in Multnomah County – to help advance the Trump administration’s increased domestic timber production priorities.
In response to this notice, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson submitted a letter to the Bureau of Land Management opposing this proposed revision, which she says “ignores years of consensus-building by affected communities, and threatens to harm people, the environment, and our state’s resilience.”
Multnomah County joins organizations like Oregon Wild and the Bird Alliance of Oregon in opposing the revision.
While the initial public comment period has closed, members of Oregon’s congressional delegation, including Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, have since requested that the bureau extend the public comment period “for an additional 60 days and hold at least one in-person public meeting in each affected BLM district.”
