Stop geothermal leasing on 29,477 acres of Deschutes National Forest
2026 Newberry Geothermal Consent to Lease
U.S. Forest Service· Deschutes National ForestU.S. Forest Service project page ↗
Forest ServiceWe track this on the agency’s own system of record, where most on-the-ground decisions live.
The groups on this fight
4 groups predicted likely to care in Oregon
Predicted likely to care is a guess from footprint in Oregon, by the same match the STAND matchmaker runs, with no link to this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Cascadia Wildlands
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Works Oregon: plaintiff in the January 2026 suit against the Roseburg BLM plan to log nearly 7,000 acres near Camas Valley.
- Crag Law Center
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Works Oregon: represented Bird Alliance of Oregon, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Cascadia Wildlands in the 2012 Endangered Species Act suit over logging occupied murrelet habitat, which ended in the 2014 settlement canceling 28 timber sales.
- Oregon Natural Desert Association
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Works Oregon: anchors the McDermitt Caldera Coalition on the Oregon side and fought the BLM's December 2025 approval of the Jindalee/HiTech lithium exploration project through the permitting process.
- Oregon Wild
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Works Oregon: its attorneys, with Cascadia Wildlands and Crag Law Center, represent the groups challenging BLM's Blue and Gold old-growth logging project in the Coast Range.
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
The Forest Service may open nearly 30,000 acres of Deschutes National Forest to geothermal drilling.
What’s at risk
About 29,477 acres of National Forest System land on the Deschutes could be opened to geothermal exploration and development. The Forest Service is deciding whether to give the BLM permission to issue those leases.
If this goes through
Once consent is granted and leases are issued, geothermal operators gain legal access to explore and develop across those 29,477 acres of public forest land.
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
By the numbers, from the agency’s own document
- Acres nominated for geothermal lease consent
- approximately 29,477 acres
- Distance from Bend, Oregon to project area
- approximately 25 air miles southeast
Project Summary
Open the document ↗“grant consent to lease approximately 29,477 acres of nominated National Forest System lands”
Each figure is checked word for word against the decision document ↗; open a label to read the sentence it comes from and the document it’s in.
The agency’s own analysis
What the notice says, and what it leaves out
The strongest findings read from the agency’s own document, each quoted word for word. Each one is a point a letter can put on the record.
Project Summary
The agency says
“nominated National Forest System lands for geothermal exploration and development. This decision is an administrative action only.”
The Project Summary simultaneously calls this 'an administrative action only' and routes it through NEPA as an Environmental Assessment.
Project Overview
The agency says
“grant consent to lease approximately 29,477 acres of nominated National Forest System lands for geothermal exploration and development”
The Project Overview commits to an Environmental Assessment as the analysis type while the project status is still 'Developing Proposal,' providing no published extraordinary-circumstances evaluation or categorical-exclusion review to justify that choice for nearly 30,000 acres.
Project Summary
The agency says
“The Deschutes National Forest is responding to a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) request to grant consent to lease approximately 29,477 acres of nominated National Forest System lands for geothermal exploration and development.”
The Project Summary describes only the consent to lease 29,477 acres with no reasonably foreseeable development scenario: no estimated number of wells, no road miles, no pipeline or transmission corridors, no surface disturbance footprint, and no acres of anticipated ground disturbance appear in the document.
Project Summary
The agency says
“The Deschutes National Forest is responding to a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) request”
The Project Summary describes only the proposed action, consent to the full nominated acreage, with no mention of alternatives to be analyzed.
Project Summary
The agency says
“responding to a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) request to grant consent to lease approximately 29,477 acres”
The Forest Service is responding to a BLM nomination request, but the notice provides no information about what BLM analysis is occurring, whether the agencies will prepare a joint NEPA document, or how the decision sequence protects the Forest Service's management authority.
6 holes in the agency’s own analysis
Make these points, in your own words
- I oppose this action as proposed, and I ask the agency to weigh the specific harms below.
- The Project Summary simultaneously calls this 'an administrative action only' and routes it through NEPA as an Environmental Assessment. That label implies the agency has pre-concluded the consent is not a major federal action significantly affecting the environment, which is the exact threshold question a NEPA analysis must answer before choosing an EA over an EIS. The agency should publish a written threshold determination explaining why consent to lease 29,477 acres of National Forest System land constitutes an administrative rather than a major federal action, or prepare an EIS.
- The Project Overview commits to an Environmental Assessment as the analysis type while the project status is still 'Developing Proposal,' providing no published extraordinary-circumstances evaluation or categorical-exclusion review to justify that choice for nearly 30,000 acres. A pre-determined analysis tier is not a substitute for the required significance determination. The agency should publish its threshold rationale before finalizing the analysis type, and if that rationale cannot be sustained, prepare an EIS.
- The Project Summary describes only the consent to lease 29,477 acres with no reasonably foreseeable development scenario: no estimated number of wells, no road miles, no pipeline or transmission corridors, no surface disturbance footprint, and no acres of anticipated ground disturbance appear in the document. Without this description the public cannot identify impacts to evaluate, and the EA cannot define a meaningful scope of analysis or determine significance. The agency should publish a project description that includes at minimum the reasonably foreseeable development scenario with estimated surface disturbance before the comment period closes.
- The Project Summary describes only the proposed action, consent to the full nominated acreage, with no mention of alternatives to be analyzed. NEPA requires agencies to rigorously explore and objectively evaluate reasonable alternatives including at minimum a no-action alternative. The public has no basis to evaluate whether reduced acreage, modified lease conditions, or phased development were considered. The agency should commit to analyzing a no-action alternative and at least one alternative with modified boundaries or conditions in the EA.
Show every point from the document
- The Forest Service is responding to a BLM nomination request, but the notice provides no information about what BLM analysis is occurring, whether the agencies will prepare a joint NEPA document, or how the decision sequence protects the Forest Service's management authority. Consent to lease is a precondition for BLM action; once granted, it constrains the Forest Service's ability to impose conditions or withhold the lease. The agency should describe the full BLM-Forest Service coordination process and confirm that the EA will be completed before BLM issues any lease.
- The notice identifies no federally recognized tribes with interests in the 29,477-acre area, describes no government-to-government consultation, and contains no reference to cultural resources or sacred sites. Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and NEPA's regulations require consultation with affected tribes before a federal undertaking that may affect historic properties, and geothermal exploration and development across nearly 30,000 acres of the Deschutes National Forest triggers that requirement. The agency should document its tribal consultation efforts and commit to completing government-to-government consultation and Section 106 review before any decision is issued.
- Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.
In the agency’s own words
The Deschutes National Forest is responding to a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) request to grant consent to lease approximately 29,477 acres of nominated National Forest System lands for geothermal exploration and development. This decision is an administrative action only.
On the record for this fight
2 people have filed on this fight through PLAN. The official record is still catching up.
- Milton M.39 seals
- and 1 more steward
Ranked on letters found on the agency’s record, then letters filed. Readers appear as first name and last initial, or as a steward in their state; switch yours off in your record. All boards
Did the agency answer?
6 issues are on this record. The agency has not published its decision document yet, so each one stays pending until the agency answers.
Issues on the record, awaiting the decision
- PendingThe notice identifies no federally recognized tribes with interests in the 29,477-acre area, describes no government-to-government consultation, and contains no reference to cultural resources or sacr
The notice identifies no federally recognized tribes with interests in the 29,477-acre area, describes no government-to-government consultation, and contains no reference to cultural resources or sacred sites. Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and NEPA's regulations require consultation with affected tribes before a federal undertaking that may affect historic properties, and geothermal exploration and development across nearly 30,000 acres of the Deschutes National Forest triggers that requirement. The agency should document its tribal consultation efforts and commit to completing government-to-government consultation and Section 106 review before any decision is issued.
A hole PLAN found in the agency’s own notice, quote verified against the text
- PendingThe Project Overview commits to an Environmental Assessment as the analysis type while the project status is still 'Developing Proposal,' providing no published extraordinary-circumstances evaluation
The Project Overview commits to an Environmental Assessment as the analysis type while the project status is still 'Developing Proposal,' providing no published extraordinary-circumstances evaluation or categorical-exclusion review to justify that choice for nearly 30,000 acres. A pre-determined analysis tier is not a substitute for the required significance determination. The agency should publish its threshold rationale before finalizing the analysis type, and if that rationale cannot be sustained, prepare an EIS.
A hole PLAN found in the agency’s own notice, quote verified against the text
- PendingThe Project Summary simultaneously calls this 'an administrative action only' and routes it through NEPA as an Environmental Assessment.
The Project Summary simultaneously calls this 'an administrative action only' and routes it through NEPA as an Environmental Assessment. That label implies the agency has pre-concluded the consent is not a major federal action significantly affecting the environment, which is the exact threshold question a NEPA analysis must answer before choosing an EA over an EIS. The agency should publish a written threshold determination explaining why consent to lease 29,477 acres of National Forest System land constitutes an administrative rather than a major federal action, or prepare an EIS.
A hole PLAN found in the agency’s own notice, quote verified against the text
- PendingThe Project Summary describes only the consent to lease 29,477 acres with no reasonably foreseeable development scenario: no estimated number of wells, no road miles, no pipeline or transmission corri
The Project Summary describes only the consent to lease 29,477 acres with no reasonably foreseeable development scenario: no estimated number of wells, no road miles, no pipeline or transmission corridors, no surface disturbance footprint, and no acres of anticipated ground disturbance appear in the document. Without this description the public cannot identify impacts to evaluate, and the EA cannot define a meaningful scope of analysis or determine significance. The agency should publish a project description that includes at minimum the reasonably foreseeable development scenario with estimated surface disturbance before the comment period closes.
A hole PLAN found in the agency’s own notice, quote verified against the text
- PendingThe Project Summary describes only the proposed action, consent to the full nominated acreage, with no mention of alternatives to be analyzed.
The Project Summary describes only the proposed action, consent to the full nominated acreage, with no mention of alternatives to be analyzed. NEPA requires agencies to rigorously explore and objectively evaluate reasonable alternatives including at minimum a no-action alternative. The public has no basis to evaluate whether reduced acreage, modified lease conditions, or phased development were considered. The agency should commit to analyzing a no-action alternative and at least one alternative with modified boundaries or conditions in the EA.
A hole PLAN found in the agency’s own notice, quote verified against the text
- PendingThe Forest Service is responding to a BLM nomination request, but the notice provides no information about what BLM analysis is occurring, whether the agencies will prepare a joint NEPA document, or h
The Forest Service is responding to a BLM nomination request, but the notice provides no information about what BLM analysis is occurring, whether the agencies will prepare a joint NEPA document, or how the decision sequence protects the Forest Service's management authority. Consent to lease is a precondition for BLM action; once granted, it constrains the Forest Service's ability to impose conditions or withhold the lease. The agency should describe the full BLM-Forest Service coordination process and confirm that the EA will be completed before BLM issues any lease.
A hole PLAN found in the agency’s own notice, quote verified against the text
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