March 26, 2024 3:30 a.m.
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review the Obama-era expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and the Bureau of Land Management’s 2016 Resource Management Plans for Western Oregon O&C lands.
A release from the American Forest Resource Council said the case posed legal questions of national interest around Executive Branch overreach and the use of the Antiquities Act to nullify Congressional intent on federal lands. Notably, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said they would grant the AFRC and Association of O&C Counties’ joint petition for certiorari, but did not write an opinion dissenting.
AFRC President Travis Joseph said, “We’re disappointed the Supreme Court did not take this historic opportunity to provide balance to growing Executive overreach on federal lands through the Antiquities Act, and legal clarity for our forests, communities, and the people who steward them”.
AOCC Executive Director Doug Robertson said, “Today, the Supreme Court denied a request to review our case involving the 2016 Resource Management plan for the BLM, O&C lands, and the inclusion of approximately 40,000 acres of O&C land in the expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou Monument in 2017”. Robertson said while it was disappointing, the decision was not a surprise. Robertson said diminishing the number of acres available for management impacts the employment, the economy, and the overall stability of all the O&C Counties in Oregon. He said the AOCC will continue to work closely with the BLM state office on the future management of the O&C Lands.
The release said the Supreme Court’s denial comes right after the AFRC urged the Pacific Northwest’s Congressional Delegation to take action to address challenges to the region’s forest and wood products sector. A letter noted that western Oregon has experienced the closure or curtailment of three wood products mills since the beginning of the year and additional closures and curtailments in the Pacific Northwest are likely to occur. The common thread is a diminishing timber supply to the region’s wood products manufacturers, including from O&C lands managed by the BLM. Three BLM Districts within the working circle of the three recently closed mills have seen a 43 percent reduction in timber harvest volume from 2021 to 2024.