Your Backyard Forests…
The BLM Special Places Report showcases Oregonians’ top 12 favorite places on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management. A diverse group of passionate people from around the state nominated their favorite places, and the most spectacular dozen made it into the report. Check out the places on this interactive site, then share your favorite spot on the Contact page and on Facebook.
What are BLM backyard forestlands?
Over 2.6 million acres of western Oregon’s forestlands are owned by all Americans, and managed for their use by the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM.
These forests, streams, rivers, and recreation areas safeguard our clean water, provide habitat for Oregon salmon and wildlife, and include some of the last remaining old-growth forests in the United States. While these special places belong to all of us, along with enjoying our “backyard forests” comes a responsibility to protect them, so future generations of Oregonians will also have places close to home to fish, hunt, hike and camp with their families.
Backyard forests at risk
Right now our BLM backyard forests areas are at risk. Our political leaders are discussing how the management of these lands should change, possibly to favor more access for logging, mining and other industrial interests. Some have suggested that funds from logging these BLM-managed forests should be tied to local government services. While science-based restoration projects have advanced on these lands for over 10 years – delivering hundreds of thousands of logging trucks to local mills in restoration efforts – some want to turn the clock back, and renew the “bad old days” of clearcut logging, which brought our ancient forest ecosystems to the brink of collapse in the 1980s.
This report highlights the special places on BLM lands potentially at risk from these resource extraction proposals. Recreational activities such as rafting, hiking, biking and horseback riding are becoming increasingly popular pursuits on these public lands. Based on citizen nominations, we’ve collected and presented BLM special places like the Wild Rogue River, Grandmother’s Grove and the Illinois Valley Botanical Area. A few moments’ time in any of these Western Oregon BLM lands indeed reveals the rich, natural qualities which make Oregon great.
Keep in mind, these backyard forest locations are just a sample of the abundant areas available to the public on Western Oregon BLM lands. There are many other special places which hold similarly important ecological, recreation, and scenic values waiting to be discovered. We hope this effort is a starting point for bringing greater public attention to these backyard forests and BLM special places.