We need your help!

This summer promises to be a busy time for those working to curb logging road pollution.

In May 2011, in WFLC’s Northwest Environmental Defense Center v. Brown case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that EPA regulations require Clean Water Act NPDES permits for polluted stormwater discharged from pipes, ditches and channels along logging roads. Logging road pollution is one of the more widespread and harmful sources of stormwater pollution in the West.

In response to the NEDC v. Brown decision, EPA recently sent a draft notice of intent to regulate logging road pollution to the White House Office of Management and Budget. Although details are not yet public, in a press release EPA stated that it "is considering flexible options including non-permitting options that recognize the vastness, diversity, and complexity of the nation's logging road network and existing effective federal, state, local, and tribal best management practice frameworks."

Please email EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and President Obama and ask them to ensure that industrial logging road pollution remains regulated under the Clean Water Act’s NPDES permit program. Tell them you oppose efforts to exempt the timber industry and logging roads from the Clean Water Act.

Click here to email EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Click here to email President Obama.

^{Stormwater being delivered to the South Fork Trask River from the Trask River Road, Tillamook State Forest, Oregon. Photo courtesy of Chris Winter.}

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_{^{Photo by David Perry}}

SFI Complaint Filed Against Weyerhaeuser for Irresponsible Logging on Steep and Unstable Slopes 

On October 1, 2009, on behalf of Sierra Club, WFLC filed a complaint against Weyerhaeuser challenging the company’s “green” certified forestry conducted in Southwest Washington.  Weyerhaeuser’s forests are certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certification system. 

The complaint alleges that Weyerhaeuser violated several of SFI’s environmental standards when it conducted logging and roadbuilding on extremely steep and unstable slopes.  During a storm in December 2007, many of these slopes produced massive landslides which delivered large quantities of wood and sediment to rivers and streams, exacerbating flooding that damaged private property and public resources.

The complaint asks SFI to suspend or revoke Weyerhaeuser’s certification and to prescribe conditions ensuring that Weyerhaeuser reforms its practices.

Learn more.

Read the Sierra Club’s complaint.

Read Architecture Week’s October 23 article, “High Tension Over Big Timber.”

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WFLC Files Complaints Against SFI Forest Certification System  

Sept. 10, 2009 -- On behalf of ForestEthics, WFLC filed complaints against the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) forest certification system with the Federal Trade Commission and the Internal Revenue Service.  The FTC complaint alleges that SFI engages in deceptive and misleading national advertising; the IRS complaint reports SFI for potentially inappropriately using a tax-exempt “public charity” for funding, operating, and marketing its private forest certification label.  The filing of these complaints was covered by The New York Times on Saturday, September 12.  Learn more.

Read the FTC complaint. 

Read the IRS complaint.

Why Have We Taken On SFI?  Read WFLC director Peter Goldman’s statement. 

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^Disclaimer.