Crag Law Center

Data centers have a huge impact on our environment, and our existing regulations have not been able to keep up. We’re proud to work with our clients to challenge Hillsboro's tax breaks to data centers.

In response to growing concerns and unanswered questions about the impacts of data center development, 1000 Friends of Oregon has partnered with Willamette Law Group, Crag Law Center, local leaders, farmers, businesses, and other organizations to sue the City of Hillsboro. Petitioners allege that the city, along with Washington County, improperly issued key approvals needed for property tax breaks associated with 17 data center applications.

To date, Hillsboro has given hundreds of millions of public dollars to subsidize data centers, resulting in higher water and energy bills, teacher lay-offs, school closures, and serious threats to pave over watersheds and local farms.

Data center businesses are increasingly pursuing development pathways that sidestep land use processes, limit public participation in land use decisions, reduce or avoid paying fair property taxes or public infrastructure, and receive public funding from grants, loans, and/or direct subsidies. Oregonians are raising concerns about these data center deals because of the immediate and long-term impacts to statewide education funding, local communities, and public services.

It’s clear that Oregon communities need stronger oversight tools to hold data center development accountable. 1000 Friends is also launching a new Data Center Reform Fund which will support communities navigating complex land use, development, and tax-related decisions with long-term public consequences.

Learn more about the lawsuit against the City of Hillsboro here: https://friends.org/news/2026/6/1000-friends-sue-hillsboro
Contribute to the Data Center Reform Fund here: https://engage.friends.org/main

Big gratitude to our partners Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, and Umpqua Watersheds, and to all the community members who tirelessly worked to protect those forests. Stay loud and stay out there folks! Our work matters!!

Protecting endangered species isn’t just for one day, it’s something we fight for every day. 💚

On this Endangered Species Day, we are happy to announce that late yesterday the US District Court ruled the 3,200-acre Blue and Gold timber sale on Bureau of Land Management (BLM)-administered land west of Yoncalla violated a suite of bedrock environmental laws and halted any further logging.

Central to the claims in the case were declarations by former federal biologists stating that the BLM intentionally misrepresented the age of the forests to facilitate the illegal logging of this old-growth forest. Additionally, documentation efforts in the field by plaintiff organizations and key volunteers confirmed that BLM planned to log forests much older than what it disclosed.

This news marks a major win not only for Oregon’s old-growth forests and endangered species, like the marbled murrelet and northern spotted owl, but also for the conservation organizations that have vociferously opposed this stinker for more than six years.

Thank you to everyone that helped make this victory possible! Conservation organizations included Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild and Umpqua Watersheds, who were represented by attorneys from Crag Law Center, Cascadia Wildlands, and Oregon Wild.

Visit the link in our bio for the full press release.

Photo of a Blue and Gold timber sale unit by