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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 end the legal impasse over federal forestland management and balance ecosystem and economic needs 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 and the large land base of public land that is managed under the plan, maintaining and strengthening protections established under the Northwest Forest Plan is one of the highest priorities of our Intact Ecosystems program. Our Clean Water program provides support to this effort in recognition of the critical contribution made by intact old-growth ecosystems to the ecological integrity of healthy aquatic ecosystems necessary for the conservation of salmon and steelhead populations.
The Bush Administration has made many attempts to rollback the protections of the Northwest Forest Plan. The National Center for Conservation Science & Policy has 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 in the journal Conservation Biology on the ten-year anniversary of the plan authored by several of the scientists who were originally involved in the plan's inception.
Jenny Creek Watershed, OR Photo by Ken Crocker
