Oregon Court Blocks Logging Loophole on 3 Million Acres

A 33-year-old loophole that let logging companies skip environmental reviews on public lands just got shut down by a federal court in Oregon.

Judge Michael McShane ruled that the U.S. Forest Service acted unlawfully when it created a rule called Categorical Exclusion 6 back in 1992. The rule was supposed to speed up small wildfire prevention projects, but it had no size limits.

Over time, the Forest Service stretched that flexibility into something much bigger. By the early 2000s, the agency was approving massive commercial logging operations without studying their environmental impact at all.

The issue exploded when three timber projects covering 29,000 acres in Oregon's Fremont-Winema National Forest got approved without any environmental review. Conservation groups Oregon Wild, WildEarth Guardians, and Green Oregon Alliance sued in 2022.

Judge McShane agreed with them. He found the Forest Service never actually considered what impact unlimited commercial logging would have on forests, calling the decision "arbitrary and capricious."

The numbers tell the story of just how widely this rule was used. A WildEarth Guardians review found CE-6 was applied to more than three million acres across 175 Forest Service projects, from the Pacific Northwest to the Rocky Mountains.

"This case demonstrates that calling out fire is not enough to get you a get-out-of-jail free card," said Ralph Bloemers, executive director of Green Oregon Alliance. "You have to back it up with some actual truth."

The Ripple Effect

The ruling reaches far beyond Oregon's borders. CE-6 can no longer be used anywhere in the United States, meaning every future timber project on public land will need proper environmental review.

Projects already underway with signed contracts can continue, but the three disputed Oregon projects got stopped in their tracks. The Forest Service will have to go back to the drawing board if it wants to move forward with those plans.

The timing matters too. This ruling could influence the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act currently awaiting Senate approval, which aims to streamline forest management while still maintaining environmental protections.

Millions of acres of public forests now have a stronger shield against unchecked commercial logging dressed up as wildfire prevention.