Special thanks to B Media for filming the video and to Balance Media for production and directing.
The Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project has been working to protect and restore the ecosystems of the Blue Mountains and Eastern Oregon Cascades since 1991. We work to stop or modify projects that threaten ecological diversity and integrity such as logging, road building, livestock grazing, herbicide and biocide use, and mining. Our work area includes the Malheur, Ochoco, Umatilla, and Deschutes National Forests. We prioritize the protection of old growth, sensitive and listed species, water quality, roadless areas, and areas vital to ecological processes. We also provide ways to become more involved in environmental change work via our summer volunteer internship program and other volunteer opportunities. Our work is important for the conservation of numerous species, including salmon, wolves, lynx, rare woodpeckers, Pacific fishers, marten, and wolverine.
The results of our work include stopping tens of thousands of acres of logging and significantly modifying many more thousands of acres. We have stopped herbicide and/or biocide spraying on up to six million acres and we have protected roadless areas, threatened species, moist mixed conifer forests, and riparian areas. We have also trained over 235 interns in forest ecology and activist skills and give workshops and trainings on everything from field survey work to fighting corporate rule.
Most of our work is done by volunteers. Every summer we are out in the field, gathering information, building legal cases, and battling timber sales and other plans that threaten the Blue Mountains. We are always seeking volunteers, especially for field survey work, which runs from June 1st to the last week of September each year. There are many ways you can become involved, so visit our Get Involved! page to see how you can help!
Watch the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project Training Video which discusses the goals, strategies, methods of survey work, and gives more information on the project.
Watch the Earth Day interview in which Karen Coulter talks about our work in eastern Oregon, including our accomplishments on reducing toxic herbicide use on public lands, fighting logging projects, and bringing awareness to these issues. The interview also discusses externalized costs of environmental degradation, legal rights for nature and animals, and more. Thanks to Jim Lockhart for producing this video.
You can also watch this interview with Karen Coulter on climate change and forests. We are working to bring awareness to how climate change is already threatening the ecological integrity and biodiversity of forests in eastern Oregon. We are also challenging practices on public lands that exacerbate problems related to climate change, such as ecologically destructive logging practices that alter watershed hydrology, de-water streams. raise stream temperatures, and threaten species vulnerable to climate change.
Check out the “Forest Ecology, Resilience, and “Restoration”” powerpoint (click here to link to the slideshow). It depicts obvious logging damage from collaborative timber sales billed as forest restoration, as shown in photos by Asante Riverwind, BMBP co-founder. Asante spent many years field surveying before and after conditions of so-called collaborative “restoration projects” planned on the Deschutes, Malheur, Ochoco, and Umatilla National Forests.
Logging in the EXF timber sale in the Deschutes National Forest. Watch the video below to learn more about this sale and about logging in the Deschutes National Forest.
We recently released this mini-film in which Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project discusses post-logging impacts in the EXF timber sale in the Deschutes National Forest. Special thanks to Kenneth Watson for making this video!
You can listen to Karen Coulter discuss our work, forest and fire ecology, and current threats to forests in eastern Oregon in an interview on the Wild Clearwater Country Radio Show (click here). This excellent interview was recorded earlier this 2016 field season– thanks to the folks at Friends of the Clearwater in Idaho!
Logging in the EXF timber sale in the Deschutes National Forest
Help Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project fight destructive timber sales on four National Forests in Eastern Oregon! Funds raised this spring will help to support this year’s field season. Please donate with a one time donation or a monthly donation!
