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Northwest Forest Plan, Survey and Manage, Western Oregon Plan Revision (WOPR), Spotted Owl Recovery Plan, Aquatic Conservation Strategy
Conservation Policy Initiative
DEFENDING THE NORTHWEST FOREST PLAN
Designed to balance ecosystem and economic needs and end the legal impasse over federal forestland management in the Northwest, the Northwest Forest Plan was adopted by federal agencies in 1994. This plan created a Late-Successional Reserve system to protect old-growth forest ecosystems within the range of the threatened northern spotted owl and an Aquatic Conservation Strategy to protect high quality watersheds and aquatic and riparian habitats.
The Northwest Forest Plan guides management of over 24.5 million acres of federal forestlands in Northern California, Oregon and Washington that are managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. It was created as the federal contribution to the recovery of the northern spotted owl and is critical to the viability of over 1,000 species associated with older forests in the Pacific Northwest.
Because of the conservation importance of old-growth ecosystems to terrestrial species and ecosystems and the critical contribution made by intact old-growth ecosystems to the ecological integrity of healthy aquatic ecosystems necessary for conservation of salmon and steelhead populations and preservation of clean water, maintaining and strengthening conservation measures established under the Northwest Forest Plan is one of the highest priorities of our Intact Ecosystems program.
The Bush Administration made many attempts to rollback the protections of the Northwest Forest Plan. These attempts left behind a legacy of ecologically destructive legal and policy snarls that still need to be resolved. The National Center responded by:
- Conducting scientific analysis regarding the importance of the Survey and Manage requirements of the plan
- Conducting scientific analysis of the Aquatic Conservation Strategy and advocating against efforts by the Forest Service to weaken its protections
- Examining the ecological and economic consequences of proposals by the BLM to deconstruct the reserve system as part of BLM's Western Oregon Plan Revision (WOPR) process
- Working to ensure that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service uses the best available science, and includes a conservation reserve network, during the development of the Spotted Owl Recovery Plan
Organizing a special feature on the Northwest Forest Plan authored by several of the scientists originally involved in the plan's inception that was published in the journal Conservation Biology on the ten-year anniversary of the plan.
While we continue to keep a watchful eye on Bush-era legacy issues, the advent of the new Obama administration and increased public and governmental awareness of the vital role that public lands can play in addressing several emerging threats has prompted us to shift gears. Our efforts to ensure the Northwest Forest Plan contributes to protection of intact ecosystems in the Pacific northwest now is focused on strengthening and improving the provisions and implementation of the Plan to better address issues related to climate change and invasive species.
In March 2009, the National Center along with the Klamath Center for Conservation Research and others released the report Conservation Implications of Coarse-Scale versus Fine-Scale Management of Forest Ecosystems: Are Reserves Still Relevant?
Jenny Creek Watershed, OR Photo by Ken Crocker
