Northwest Forest Plan Historic Overview
1800
Cutting of forests in the Pacific Northwest began in the 1800s when the first non-Indian immigrants
began to settle and farm in the interior valleys of western Oregon and the Puget Sound region.
Initially, the extensive forests that covered much of the landscape were viewed as an impediment to
progress and were systematically cleared and burned to make way for agriculture.1800
- 1900
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, extraction of timber for commercial purposes began to increase.
Lumber camps sprang up around the region, especially in areas accessible by river or stream
locomotive. Lowland areas close to human population centers were logged first, followed
eventually by less accessible areas in more mountainous terrain. Logging in these early years
frequently consisted of a clearcut and burn approach in which noncommercial species and
many small diameter trees were left following logging, with little or no attention to replanting
after harvest. Because of the seemingly inexhaustible supply of trees and the considerable
labor required to fell them with hand saws and axes, trees with low commercial value were
frequently left standing.World War II
Logging began in earnest on
Pacific Northwest Federal lands shortly after World War II aided by the invention of the gas-powered chain saw and
improvements in transportation. European methods of forest management were gradually adopted on most Federal and private
lands, including techniques such as clearcutting, removal of logs and snags, slash burning, thinning,
and planting of single species stands on cutover areas.
As a result of over a century of logging and fire control, the forests of the Pacific Northwest presently consist of a highly fragmented mosaic of recent clearcuts, thinned stands, and young plantations interspersed with uncut natural stands. Where many large old trees remain in the overstory, these stands are usually referred to as "old growth" or "ancient forests."
1970 - 1980
As
studies on the ecology of late-successional forest began to proliferate in the 1970s and 1980s, it gradually became apparent that
a simplistic approach
to forest management based on high-yield, short-rotation forestry was not
going to adequately protect the considerable biodiversity that was present
in late-successional forests and their associated aquatic ecosystems. The
northern spotted owl was the first species to receive recognition in this
regard followed closely by the marbled murrelet, anadromous fish, and the
recognition that a wide variety of species are closely associated with old
forest. More recently, ecologist, foresters, and the public have begun to
recognize that the old forests that remain in the Pacific Northwest may be
unique ecosystems that developed under climatic and disturbance regimes
that may never be duplicated.1990
By 1992, there were over a dozen lawsuits and three court injunctions in the Pacific Northwest (total gridlock) involving the Northern Spotted Owl, Marbled Murrelet, and future timber harvesting in old-growth forests.
The Federal agencies most directly involved in the issues concerning the management of late-successional and old-growth (LSOG) forest within the range of the northern spotted owl are the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Biological Survey, National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The five major Federal laws that apply to Federal land management in the planning area are the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), National Forest Management Act (NFMA), Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), and Oregon and California Lands Act (O&C Act).
Plan Adoption
The Northwest Forest Plan represents the first time that the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, in conjunction with other Federal agencies, have developed a common management approach for an entire ecological region.
The adoption of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) in 1994 culminated a
nearly decade-long series of processes and policy prescriptions to address
an array of increasingly complex issues concerning management of late-successional
and old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest and northern California.
The earliest forays revolved primarily around the Forest Service's efforts
in the mid-1980s to devise strategies to conserve sufficient LSOG habitat
to provide for the viability of the northern spotted owl
("owl"), which the agency's research had indicated was
sustaining a population decline.
In 1990, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service listed the owl as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, triggering conservation duties for the species by all Federal agencies. Notwithstanding the involvement of some of the foremost experts in their respective areas of expertise in LSOG forest issues, many of the options the agencies considered were either determined to represent an unacceptable allocation among multiple uses or were not thought to be sufficiently well-established to be able to withstand challenge. Moreover, virtually all of the LSOG forest strategies adopted by the respective agencies during this time frame, as well as the processes used to develop them, were subject to litigation and ultimately determined by a court to be invalid under one or more federal environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act. By 1992, there were three separate injunctions in place blanketing the entire range of the owl that literally shut down any further timber sales in Federal LSOG forests and the FS, BLM, and FWS were engaged in largely independent efforts to comply with various court mandates. As might be expected, the situation was fraught with controversy, frustration, and much finger-pointing.
The situation was such that, although it was unclear what could or should be done to break out of the gridlock, it was even more clear that something had to be done if the injunctions were to be lifted and programmed timber harvest activities were to resume on Federal forests in the range of the owl. It was against this backdrop that a Forest Conference was convened in early 1993 in Portland, Oregon. In attendance at the conference were the President, Vice-President, and five cabinet-level officials.
At the conclusion of the conference, the President directed the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to work together on a strategy that would enable the agencies to free themselves from the injunctions then in effect. The strategy was to satisfy five foundational principles, which included providing for a stable and sustainable supply of timber and meeting the agencies' conservation obligations toward the owl and other LSOG-related or protected species at the same time. Approximately one year later, the Secretaries jointly adopted the NWFP as management direction for the nearly 25 million acres administered by the FS and BLM within the range of the owl.