Pacific Northwest Forest Proposal Reflects Advisory Committee’s Diverse Views

Businesses, communities, and wildlife across a vast portion of western Washington, western Oregon, and northwestern California rely on healthy national forests. Since 1994, the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) has guided conservation, recreation, timber production, and other uses of these 19.2 million acres of species-rich and economically important lands and rivers, and now, as it does periodically, the U.S. Forest Service is updating the NWFP.

Created to address habitat loss, especially for species such as the northern spotted owl that depend on old-growth forests, the NWFP serves as a foundational example of science- and landscape-based ecosystem management. Now, the U.S. Forest Service has initiated a process—called an amendment—to update select aspects of the NWFP to include new science, the impacts of increasing global temperatures on nature and people, and Tribal perspectives that were not considered in the original plan.

The scientists and land managers who authored the original NWFP recognized the importance of drawing on the best available science. They also had the foresight to incorporate ways to monitor the forests and adjust management if their assumptions—for example, about the plan’s impact on nature and communities—proved wrong.

That same commitment to science and adaptive management underlies the proposed NWFP amendment. In advance of this land management process, the Forest Service’s research stations in the region produced a three-volume science synthesis (in 2018) that provides a comprehensive overview of the scientific knowledge accumulated since the plan was established and a bioregional assessment (in 2020) that offers a snapshot of ecological, economic, and social conditions within the NWFP area.

U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region/Flickr Creative Commons

Even with a strong scientific understanding, perspectives on forest management continue to vary, largely because of differing values and priorities associated with these important landscapes. As such, to assist the agency with its application of latest science to the NWFP amendment, the Forest Service convened a Federal Advisory Committee whose members represent diverse perspectives, including timber industry representatives, Tribal officials, forest ecologists, wildlife advocates, and recreation businesses.

Pacific Southeast Forest Service/Flickr Creative Commons

After 10 months of collaborative work, the committee provided the Forest Service with 192 consensus recommendations for targeted updates to the NWFP, which the Forest Service used as the foundation for the proposed amendment in its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS).

The DEIS, an important part of the amendment process, presents a range of management approaches, referred to as alternatives. The different alternatives are intended to improve the resilience to wildfire, strengthen climate adaptation, conserve and steward mature forests, incorporate Indigenous knowledge, and support the long-term sustainability of communities through timber- and nontimber-based economic opportunities. Each alternative differs in how it would achieve these aims.

Like the original NWFP, the DEIS proposes area-based management—that is, managing specific areas for specific outcomes—but adds or modifies direction to address the amendment’s goals of species conservation alongside sustainable timber production.

Notable elements of the proposal include:

• Distinguishing between dry and moist forest types and aligning management approaches with the different needs of these forest types.
• Including more than 90 provisions related to “Tribal inclusion,” such as support for treaty and protected Tribal rights, access to important cultural places, and the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge and co-stewardship.
• Establishing wildfire community protection zones to reduce risk near homes and infrastructure while retaining supporting ecological functions.
• Increasing timber-related jobs and income in forest-dependent communities by encouraging restoration of forest areas where wildfire suppression has prevented fire from playing its natural role.
• Ensuring that vegetation management employs the principles of “ecological silviculture,” which replicate natural patterns of forest development to make forests healthier and more resilient to stressors.

U.S. Forest Service/Flickr Creative Commons

The Forest Service is accepting public comment on the DEIS through March 17. A finalized amendment that centers on the Federal Advisory Committee’s consensus recommendations is the best path for helping nature and the people who live in the NWFP area thrive far into the future.

The Pew Charitable Trusts looks forward to continuing to work with the Forest Service, local stakeholders, and Tribes to ensure that science and collaboration are central to an updated NWFP and that the plan retains its focus on conserving biodiversity in a manner that meets the needs of people and nature throughout our vital Pacific Northwest forests.

Blake Busse works on The Pew Charitable Trusts’ U.S. conservation project.