Readers respond: Empty promises on I-5 expansion
Updated 6:00 AM;
Why do claims that the Interstate 5 improvement project will provide restorative justice to the neighborhood I grew up in ring hollow? In 2019, the Audubon Society of Portland, Opal’s Environmental Justice and several other groups asked for the Oregon Department of Transportation to conduct a complete Environmental Impact Statement, but ODOT refused to.
Now, Neighbors for Clean Air, Eliot Neighborhood Association and No More Freeways have decided to sue to get a full study. This $800 million freeway expansion project will sit right at Harriet Tubman Middle School’s back door, and the school already reduces student time outside because of poor air quality.
For Immediate Release, April 14, 2021
Contact:
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, (503) 484-9214, ngreenwald@biologicaldiversity.org
Lawsuit Aims to Stop Post-Fire Logging on Oregon State Forest
Organizations Challenge Department of Forestry’s Clearcutting in Santiam State Forest After Last Summer’s Wildfires
PORTLAND,
Ore. A coalition of conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the ongoing post-fire clearcutting in the Santiam State Forest east of Salem. The state forest has been closed to visitors since the Labor Day wildfires and is currently being extensively logged by the Oregon Department of Forestry.
The department’s logging operations in the Santiam have been contentious as they are impacting areas beloved by mountain bikers, horseback riders and hikers, including the Monument Peak horse camp and the Niagara area.
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State Suggests Burying Willamette Cove’s Toxic Soil Along Beach Local residents who have championed turning former dry dock into parkland say the state’s plan is insufficient. Willamette Cove. (Justin Katigbak) Updated April 7 at 8:18 PM Environmental advocates and North Portlanders are livid at a decision by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to clean up a contaminated beach on the Willamette River by burying most of the hazardous waste onsite.
WW examined the controversy over Willamette Cove last year ( Buried Treasure, Dec. 9, 2020). On March 31, DEQ issued its final cleanup plan and mostly ignored pleas from advocates to haul the toxic waste away.
Conservation groups in the Pacific Northwest filed a legal challenge recently to reinstate federal protections on more than 3.4 million acres of federal old-growth forests, which are essential for the survival of the threatened northern spotted owl. The lawsuit asks the court to reject a rule issued in the last days of the Trump administration that eliminated one-third of the critical habitat protections for the species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protected the northern spotted owl, a bird found only in the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1990. In 2012, approximately 9.6 million acres of habitat necessary for the owlâs survival and recovery were protected on federally managed public lands in Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
Lawsuit Seeks to Reinstate Protections on 3 4 Million Acres of Critical Northern Spotted Owl Habitat biologicaldiversity.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from biologicaldiversity.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.