The federal district court for the District of Oregon vacated the environmental assessment and  finding of no significant impact for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Blue and Gold Harvest Plan, which identified 2,625 acres for silvicultural treatment in Douglas County, Oregon. The court also vacated the decision record for associated timber sales. The court found that BLM violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act by failing to demonstrate compliance with a binding directive in the applicable Resource Management Plan (RMP) to retain certain old-growth trees. The court also found that BLM failed to take a hard look at the Blue and Gold Harvest Plan’s effects on protected old-growth trees in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and that BLM failed to provide “a convincing statement of reasons” as to why the potential effects were insignificant. The court rejected, however, the plaintiffs’ contention that BLM failed to take a hard look at effects on carbon storage and climate change. The court found that BLM’s tiering of the analysis of these issues to the 2016 final environmental impact statement for the RMP was sufficient.

Challenge to a Bureau of Land Management project that would allegedly include logging on approximately 3,237 acres of lands in Douglas County, Oregon.

Cascadia Wildlands v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management

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Oregon Federal Court Vacated Authorization for Logging Plan Due to Failures to Protect and Disclose Impacts on Old-Growth Trees; Carbon Storage and Climate Change Analyses Found to Be Adequate

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Conditions that enhance the feasibility of adaptation options. Enabling conditions include finance, technological innovation, strengthening policy instruments, institutional capacity, multi-level governance and changes in human behaviour and lifestyles.

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Electricity generation from devices driven by the movement of salt water, differences in saltwater temperatures, or salinity gradients.

Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock formed from carbonised plant matter, rich in carbon and hydrocarbons, and occurring in several main types including hard coal and brown coal.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

Activities that relate to the production of goods and services from forests.

Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

Climate change can have a range of impacts on technological system. Extreme weather events can cause infrastructure failures like power outages or damage to roads and bridges, as well as the impacts from waste following natural disasters. Human activities also cause technological impacts, such as the risks posed by oil spillage and leaks.

Oregon Federal Court Vacated Authorization for Logging Plan Due to Failures to Protect and Disclose Impacts on Old-Growth Trees; Carbon Storage and Climate Change Analyses Found to Be Adequate

Risk

Impacted group

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance