Fact Sheet Science Findings

Fact Sheet
Science Findings from the Northwest Forest Plan 10-Year Monitoring Reports

I. General

We know more about the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) areas than about any other forests in the world.
We are early into a long-term strategy, and it is too early to tell long-term results. Many ecological outcomes, however, are trending in the desired direction, though timber harvest expectations were not met.
The NWFP was not entirely successful in ending the gridlock within the Federal government. However, there have been noticeable increases in cooperation among Federal agencies and between research and management.
The threats present today to ecological systems on Federal lands are different from those that inspired the NWFP in 1994.

II. Findings

There is limited distribution of old-growth forests; most are in reserves.
The best habitat for Northern Spotted Owls and Marbled Murrelets is in the reserves.
Key watersheds are in better condition now than before the NWFP.
The forests are inherently productive.
The reserves are large enough to withstand natural disturbances without loss of function.

Several assumptions underlying the NWFP are unsupported or only weakly supported by new evidence or understanding.
- Timber flow from Federal lands is not a key determinant in community well-being for all communities.
- Harvest of older trees in matrix and thinning of older forests inside reserves is unacceptable to many people.
- Use of Northern Spotted Owls and Marbled Murrelets as indicator species for older forest-dependant species is only partially successful.
- New threats demonstrate that providing sufficient habitat is necessary, but that habitat alone will not conserve species such as Northern Spotted Owls.

A. Old Forests

There has been an increase in the amount of older forest even though there have been losses due to fire and harvest.
The NWFP assumed that federal lands would carry most of the weight in conserving species and old forest systems; the conditions on non-federal lands as well as external factors (e.g. climate change, West Nile virus, Barred Owl) can influence achievement of NWFP goals.

B. Reserves

Monitoring trends and reevaluation of NWFP assumptions do not indicate a compelling ecological reason for making major changes to reserve boundaries in the moist habitat types at this time.
In dry provinces, there is a need to consider if new landscape management strategies would better reduce risks of loss of older forest and owl habitat to catastrophic fire.

C. Active Management

There is a need for active management, especially in dry, fire-prone areas where an accelerated rate of fuels treatments and restoration is particularly needed. Active management is needed both inside and outside of late-successional reserves for fuel treatment, restoration, and control of invasive weeds.

D. Adaptive Management

Adaptive management was considered the cornerstone of the NWFP. We anticipated that we would learn through experimentation, but precaution has trumped adaptation and learning.
Taking "No Action" is a risky alternative as we have learned, especially on the dry, fire-prone areas.

E. Aquatic Systems

Studies continue to support the aquatic conservation strategy (ACS) framework and assumptions, and stress the importance of headwater streams. A growing body of science about the dynamics of aquatic and riparian ecosystems could provide a foundation for developing new management approaches. The condition of any watershed may vary widely naturally; it is unlikely that we can meet all aquatic objectives everywhere, all of the time.
The NWFP and the aquatic conservation strategy changed the focus of land management agencies from small spatial scales (i.e., watersheds) to larger scales (i.e., landscapes). It appears that confusion among these scales in the implementation of the ACS, has resulted in limited flexibility at the site level.

F. Terrestrial Species

Substantial areas of habitat for Northern Spotted Owls and Marbled Murrelets occur on non-Federal lands; rates of loss due to logging on those lands has been greater than on Federal lands and those losses will likely continue.
Populations of Northern Spotted Owl in the demographic study areas are declining fastest in the northern parts of the subspecies range and are more stationary in southern parts of the subspecies range; reasons are unclear but lingering effects of past harvest and synergistic interactions of weather, habitat and displacement by Barred Owl are likely causes.
Based on four years of monitoring, Marbled Murrelet populations seem stable, but additional surveys are needed to be confident in estimated trends.

G. Socioeconomic Outcomes

Timber harvest expectations were not met; the Federal role in the timber economy and in the well-being of local communities has changed or is different than originally thought.
Overall growth in regional economies reduced the impacts of reductions in Federal timber flows for some communities. The economic adjustment initiative provided less help to displaced workers than expected.