Federal Judge Upholds Expansion of Ecological Wonder Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is America’s first monument protected for its biodiversity. Medford, OR — In a win for a national monument stretching from Southwest Oregon into Northern California, a federal judge rejected a logging company’s challenge to President Obama’s expansion of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in 2017. The monument was first protected in 2000 under the Antiquities Act as an ecological wonder, known for its incredible diversity of species. Earthjustice and the Western Environmental Law Center represent Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Oregon Wild, and The Wilderness Society as defendant-intervenors in the case. “Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is one of America’s natural wonders, not a collection of standing logs for a timber company,” said Kristen Boyles, Earthjustice attorney . “We’re grateful that the Court rejected Murphy Timber’s arguments and that this incredible monument will remain protected for all of us.” Oregon logging company Murphy Timber brought one of three lawsuits against President Obama’s expansion of Cascade-Siskiyou, arguing that a 1937 law known as the Oregon and California Lands (O&C) Act committed some 40,000 acres of the expansion to commercial timber production, making those lands ineligible for inclusion in a monument. Local conservation organizations intervened to defend the monument. The […]

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