The timber sale is part of the BLM’s Last Chance timber project, which proposes commercial logging and wildfire reduction efforts across about 11,000 acres northeast of Grants Pass. The project is the subject of a lawsuit filed by the environmental group KS Wild. A hearing was held last week on a proposed preliminary injunction that would halt current and future logging while the case proceeds. Attorney Sydney Wilkins said the group is concerned the BLM incorrectly determined the project area was unoccupied by northern spotted owls. “There were calls heard and recorded,” she said. ”And so there was a question about whether their unoccupied determination was arbitrary and capricious or inappropriate.” …Wilkins said a decision on the preliminary injunction is expected in the coming weeks.

Related coverage in The Bulletin, by Michael Kohn: Central Oregon LandWatch Forum to focus on public forest protections