Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project sends notice of intent to sue over Tiger-Mill Project’s threats to bull trout and steelhead

On September 17, 2026, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project (BMBP) sent the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS) a 60-day notice of intent to sue over alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the approval and review of the Tiger-Mill Project on the Umatilla National Forest.

BMBP sent the notice over concerns about threats to ESA-threatened bull trout and Middle Columbia River steelhead as a result of the approved management actions in the Tiger-Mill Project. BMBP intends to file suit in federal court if the agencies do not correct the violations before the notice period expires.

BMBP’s notice faults the Forest Service for approving Tiger-Mill before federal wildlife agencies completed the consultation required by the Endangered Species Act, despite the fact that the Forest Service’s own biological assessment found that Tiger-Mill is “likely to adversely affect” both bull trout and steelhead, and their critical habitat. The Forest Service issued its final decision approving Tiger-Mill on February 26, 2025, but the ESA consultations were not finalized until months later. According to BMBP, this order of events prevented the Forest Service from considering and incorporating the conservation measures necessary to protect these threatened species.

“The Forest Service approved the Tiger-Mill Project first and completed the required endangered species consultation later,” said Austin Starnes, BMBP’s staff attorney. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work. The ESA requires that agencies understand the risks to protected fish and their habitat before the Forest Service commits public resources to ill-advised logging, road work, prescribed burning, and water withdrawals.

Tiger-Mill covers approximately 37,800 acres about 13 miles east of Walla Walla, Washington. The timber sale includes logging and other ecologically harmful management activities within the Mill Creek Municipal Watershed, which supplies 90 percent of Walla Walla’s drinking water, and the Mill Creek Inventoried Roadless Area. Authorized actions include approximately 6,622 acres of commercial logging (including logging rare and ecologically valuable large trees), additional noncommercial logging, and prescribed burning across 21,325 acres. It also includes construction of approximately 10.6 miles of temporary roads, reopening 35.6 miles of closed roads, and maintenance or repair of roughly 96 miles of haul routes.

BMBP and local citizens are extremely concerned about widespread heavy logging planned in the Tiger-Mill sale, including on steep slopes above streams. The Forest Service admits that over 85% of the project area contains steep slopes over 35%. Such logging is likely to increase water temperatures and fine sediments in streams, harming bull trout and steelhead, and their habitat. These authorized actions also have the chance to drastically increase the flood risk and decrease water quality in the municipal watershed that provides drinking water for the city of Walla Walla, WA.

The Forest Service is also proposing to pump water out of small, pristine streams that support some of the last remaining bull trout in the Tiger-Mill area in order to manage fire risks during prescribed burns. However, BMBP notes that the physically distinct resident bull trout in these streams are extremely small and hard to spot, and the Forest Service admits that bull trout could become entrained or killed during pumping. BMBP’s notice raises concerns that the required mitigation measures in the wildlife agencies’ incidental take statements—such as spot-checking for these notoriously hard-to-spot fish before pumping occurs and stopping pumping if a fish is seen from the bank—are inadequate to prevent unauthorized harm to these species. Internal agency communications cited in the notice indicate that Forest Service personnel considered shutting down pumps in order to protect these threatened species impracticable or risky.

BMBP’s notice also challenges the substance of the two biological opinions. It alleges that the agencies failed to evaluate the effects of the Tiger-Mill Project in light of the degraded ecological conditions of the Walla Walla River Subbasin, which is temperature-impaired and in need of a new management and recovery plan under the Clean Water Act. Threatened bull trout are especially temperature sensitive, needing clean cold water to persist in the region.

Bull trout are critically threatened across their range. The unlogged, old growth forests and streams in the Tiger-Mill sale support important populations of bull trout. Approximately 87% of the project area has never been logged. BMBP is extremely concerned that logging, road building, log haul, and water pumping will further jeopardize the already extremely small populations of bull trout.

“These threatened aquatic species are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to the effects of climate change in the region,” said Starnes. “What these species need now more than ever are the intact forested ecosystems that provide the clean cold water they need to survive, not more logging and ecologically inappropriate prescribed fire.”

Other concerns raised in BMBP’s notice include the failure of the Forest Service to consider the cumulative and downstream effects of the proposed logging and prescribed fire, and the need to re-initiate ESA consultation after the Paradise Fire, which potentially increased the risks of flooding, landslides, debris flows, and sedimentation.

BMBP asks the agencies to halt project implementation, vacate the Forest Service’s Decision Notice, reinitiate consultation, and develop a lawful implementation plan that incorporates all required protections for bull trout and Middle Columbia River steelhead.

Additional background on the Tiger-Mill Project is available on BMBP’s website.

Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project is a grassroots ecological protection organization based in Eastern Oregon that monitors and challenges agency actions to protect public lands in the Blue Mountains and the Eastern Oregon Cascades.

Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project is represented by Thomas Buchele at Earthrise Law Center and Austin Starnes, BMBP’s staff attorney. Earthrise Law Center is the domestic environmental law clinic at Lewis & Clark Law School. It provides legal training for future public-interest lawyers and pro bono representation for nonprofit environmental organizations.