diff --git a/google-cloud-clients/google-cloud-contrib/google-cloud-logging-logback/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/logging/logback/LoggingAppender.java b/google-cloud-clients/google-cloud-contrib/google-cloud-logging-logback/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/logging/logback/LoggingAppender.java
index fbc2ece63cc0..16e98e4f2039 100644
--- a/google-cloud-clients/google-cloud-contrib/google-cloud-logging-logback/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/logging/logback/LoggingAppender.java
+++ b/google-cloud-clients/google-cloud-contrib/google-cloud-logging-logback/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/logging/logback/LoggingAppender.java
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ Logging getLogging() {
   }
 
   /** Gets the {@link LoggingOptions} to use for this {@link LoggingAppender}. */
-  LoggingOptions getLoggingOptions() {
+  protected LoggingOptions getLoggingOptions() {
     if (loggingOptions == null) {
       if (Strings.isNullOrEmpty(credentialsFile)) {
         loggingOptions = LoggingOptions.getDefaultInstance();