PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) — Conservation groups on Monday sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in federal court in Oregon, claiming the fed’s plans to rebuild a logging road in the Tillamook State Forest this fall is illegal due to the harm it would cause protected coho salmon and marbled murrelet species.
The lawsuit — brought by the Center of Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands, both nonprofits — follows up on a successful settlement between the groups and the Oregon Department of Forestry last March. As part of that settlement, ODF agreed to expand stream buffers within the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests with the goal of improving habitat for Oregon’s threatened coho salmon species.
Similar to that lawsuit, the groups now claim the government’s plans to use federal disaster relief to rebuild Cook Creek Road will yet again harm threatened species and pollute forest waterways. They're asking a court to vacate decisions from FEMA and FWS that greenlit the project. They also want to enjoin funding of the road until they say the government defendants more fully comply with environmental laws.
In a statement on the lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity said rebuilding the road would harm both water quality and fish species. “Rebuilding this logging road will seriously harm coho salmon, marbled murrelets and water quality in ways FEMA downplayed and completely ignored,” said Meg Townsend, senior freshwater attorney for the group.
“If FEMA is going to hand out federal disaster relief money to clearcut Oregon’s public lands, it must consider the harms from those activities," Townsend added. "Cook Creek provides excellent clean water in the beautiful Coast Range for imperiled species and Oregonians alike.”
Located centrally within the Tillamook State Forest, the roughly seven-mile logging road closed in December 2015 after heavy rain washed out a 500-foot section into the adjacent Cook Creek, altering its flow pattern. The creek, a tributary of the Nehalem River, is a critical spawning and rearing habitat for the threatened Oregon Coast coho salmon.
According to the groups, the government’s grant to reconstruct the road starting this fall will involve moving the washed-out segment about 130 feet upslope from its former location, constructing 1,900 feet of new road and adding two turnouts along steep, erosion-prone slopes.
All this, they say, will cause yet more sediment to fall into Cook Creek while juvenile salmon are rearing and while adult salmon are migrating and preparing to spawn. They also say the project will affect marbled murrelets — another threatened species — as they nest, fledge and feed their young in the creek.
Even worse, the group say, is the fact the reopened road will be used for logging projects, further imperiling the fragile species.
They say feds failed to comply with environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, by rushing through environmental assessments, ignoring "admitted 'major' impacts" that logging would have water quality, fish and birds. They say the feds also failed to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service as required by law.
“FEMA should not be subsidizing commercial timber operations with disaster relief funds, and particularly not where it will harm threatened species and their habitat,” Nick Cady, legal director of Cascadia Wildlands, said in a statement. “FEMA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must protect marbled murrelets and coho salmon from further harm to Oregon’s coastal forests.”
Representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Oregon’s Department of Forestry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
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