November 7, 2025 3:20 a.m.
On Thursday, the American Forest Resource Council appeared in federal court before United States District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai to defend the Bureau of Land Management’s Blue and Gold Project.
An AFRC release said the organization, along with the Association of O&C Counties, intervened in Cascadia Wildlands v. United States Bureau of Land Management to support rural Oregon jobs, timber supplies, and county revenues that depend on active forest management on O&C lands, and to uphold the agency’s authority under the O&C Act to manage forests for sustained yield, forest health, and community stability.
AFRC General Counsel Sara Ghafouri said, “The Blue and Gold Project represents responsible, science-based forest management on O&C lands that Congress set aside for sustained yield and local economic benefit”. Ghafouri said, “The project provides critical timber for local mills, supports hundreds of family wage jobs and generates revenues that fund law enforcement, fire protection, and public schools in western Oregon’s O&C counties”.
Located north of Roseburg, the Blue and Gold Project includes a mix of thinning and regeneration harvest on about 2,400 acres of O&C lands. Over its eight-year duration, the project is expected to produce about 70 million board feet of timber, enough to support more than 700 jobs, while contributing directly to the Roseburg District’s Allowable Sale Quantity of 32 million board feet under BLM’s 2016 Northwestern and Coastal Oregon Resource Management Plan.
The release said the Blue and Gold Project was carefully designed by the BLM’s professional public lands managers, consistent with the RMP adopted under the Obama Administration and authorized in an Environmental Assessment approved by the Biden Administration. The project incorporates extensive best management practices to protect water quality, fish habitat, and soils, and includes seasonal restrictions to avoid impacts on wildlife such as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.
Anti-forestry groups have sued to halt the project, seeking to vacate its Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact. AFRC and AOCC were granted intervenor status in December 2024 to defend BLM’s decision and the public benefits it provides
The release said AFRC will continue to stand with the BLM, O&C counties and rural communities to ensure that sustainable forest management and the jobs, infrastructure and healthy forests it sustains, can continue for generations.