Deadline: September 30, 2026 at 11:59pm PDT
Why this Matters
The Forest Service has proposed a new management plan for the Malheur, Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman national forests, about 4.9 million acres of northeast Oregon and southeast Washington. The plan will set the rules for logging, grazing, mining, motorized access and wildfire response there for years. Comments close September 30 at 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific, through the agency's own comment system.
Sierra Club's action page describes the preferred alternative as tripling logging quotas, expanding mining and grazing, and removing protections for roadless areas and old-growth trees. Regional coverage of the draft environmental impact statement gives a different comparison: the Forest Service's preferred alternative, Alternative 2, projects about 27 percent less timber output than the combined three 1990-era forest plans it would replace, and grazing levels about 34 percent below those plans. Those two claims are not measuring the same baseline, and this page does not resolve which comparison is the more meaningful one. Read the draft yourself before deciding which framing fits.
This is outside ECC's usual coastal footprint, flagged rather than forced into one. It is here because it is a live, dated comment period on public forest management that a volunteer forwarded.
Steps to Take
Submit your comment directly through the Forest Service's own comment form for Project #301397. It opens straight to a letter box. Comments close September 30 at 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific, and anonymous comments do not carry standing for an administrative review later, so include your name if you want that option preserved.
If you would rather start from a prewritten letter, Sierra Club's action form sends a message to Regional Forester Eric Watrud with an editable personal note. Taking action there opts you into Sierra Club's email list and, if you give a mobile number, its text alerts. That is disclosed on their page; know it before you click.
Read the plan before you write. The Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision home page is the project hub, and the July 1 announcement covers the draft environmental impact statement itself.
Be specific if you can. Name a use, a species, or a place within the Malheur, Umatilla or Wallowa-Whitman forests that the plan would affect, and say what changes under the alternative you are commenting on.