| PORTLAND, Ore., July 24, 2024 — A Federal Advisory Committee has completed a comprehensive set of recommendations for amending the Northwest Forest Plan aimed at modernizing forest management practices across the Northwest Forest Plan area. After developing the recommendations over the last 10 months, the Committee voted unanimously to approve and advance the completed recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture. The recommendations address critical issues such as ensuring tribes are included in land management planning and implementation, conserving mature and old growth forests and the species that rely on them, providing sustainable economic opportunities for rural communities, and supporting fire resiliency for forests and communities. The recommendations come as part of an effort to update the NWFP, originally implemented in 1994, to better align with current environmental, social, and economic challenges. “The recommendations from the Federal Advisory Committee represent a significant milestone in our efforts to update the Northwest Forest Plan,” said Jacque Buchanan, Regional Forester for the Pacific Northwest Region of the Forest Service. “These thoughtful proposals reflect a collaborative approach to addressing the complex challenges facing our forests today, including climate change, wildfire resilience, and the need for sustainable forest management. We are committed to carefully considering these recommendations as we move forward with the plan amendment process.” The committee developed 192 recommendations targeting key areas that update the current NWFP. These areas include Tribal Inclusion and Rights, Economic Opportunities, Fire Resilience, Climate and Ecosystem Integrity, Carbon Sequestration and Storage, Community Protection, and Adaptive Management. The FAC also made a host of recommendations for how to develop Forest Stewardship- across the diverse NWFP landscape. The FAC’s work provides a foundation for addressing these complex issues while honoring the plan’s original goals of ecosystem conservation, endangered species habitat protections, and sustainable timber production. “What the Committee accomplished is historic,” said Northwest Forest Plan Federal Advisory Committee co-chairs Susan Jane Brown and Travis Joseph in a joint statement. “By unanimously approving dozens of meaningful recommendations to modernize the Northwest Forest Plan, this group has demonstrated the power of collaboration, consensus, and working together for a common cause. We all share a deep love and commitment to our national forests and people and communities that steward them.” The 20-person committee is a diverse group from Tribes, local communities, environmental groups, industry, and academia across Northern California, Oregon and Washington. “We tackled some of the most challenging and contentious issues that ignited the Northwest Forest Wars,” Brown and Joseph wrote. “While we recognize our work does not address all the issues and injustices of the Northwest Forest Plan, the Committee’s consensus recommendations represent the most significant progress in the last 30 years to achieve our shared values for responsible forest stewardship on national forests in the Pacific Northwest.” The Forest Service will carefully review the FAC’s recommendations as the agency works toward amending the Northwest Forest Plan. Public engagement opportunities will be announced in the coming months as the plan amendment process moves forward. The Federal Advisory Committee’s recommendations can be viewed here: · NWFP FAC Recommendations direct link: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1188978.pdf The Northwest Forest Plan is a comprehensive plan for administering parts of federally managed lands in Oregon, Washington and California. The plan was designed to protect old-growth forests and critical habitat for the northern spotted owl, while also providing for forest products, water quality, recreation and other uses. For more information visit: · Northwest Forest Plan Federal Advisory Committee: https://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/r6/nwfpfac · Northwest Forest Plan: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r6/reo/ · The Pacific Northwest Region: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r6 For more news & information about National Forests in the Pacific Northwest, visit our news page at https://www.fs.usda.gov/news/r6/news-events or our home page, at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r6. For more information about the USDA Forest Service visit https://www.fs.usda.gov. |
Going back to the Travis Joseph podcast Steve posted yesterday, I have some questions.
I thought Nick Smith did a great job interviewing Travis Joseph, one of the co-chairs of the FAC committee on amending the NWFP. Susan Jane Brown, a frequent commenter was the other co-chair. I’m hoping she will weigh in with her views, and especially if I got something wrong, or she sees it differently from Travis.
There apparently was some confusion about exactly what the FAC was supposed to do, but from the podcast, it was to provide the FS with ideas that could be used in developing alternatives. The idea apparently was that there would be an amendment and not a revision; and that some parts of the NWFP were off the table, like survey and manage. I get it, the NWFP is very important. But this has a whiff of “revisions for thee but not for me.” It also sounded as if the Admin or the FS was in a bit of a hurry to do this. Yes, I know, “a hurry” and “anything to do with the 2012 Rule” seem like something of an oxymoron.
I am the least political person imaginable, so it seems to me that A. if the Admin wants to be done by January, is there time to develop alternatives, have a 60 day comment period, and reflect the comments received?. B. If they win, they will have all the time in the world to do a bang-up revision job. So why choose this path? It may frustrate the members of the committee and no doubt FS folks as well. From what I heard, the FAC committee all worked very hard and put much of themselves into it. So kudos to them!
Travis talks about Indigenous Knowledge and involvement of Tribes. Seems like that could be more broadly applied than in just the NWFP and NOGA. Seems like it may just need a general FS policy statement of some kind? Which I think already exists. It would be great to understand the nuances of whether there are differences among NWFP, NOGA and FS policy in general on IK and Tribal relationships. Maybe someone can speak to that?
I have to say that with that, these approaches sound a bit like what Bob Zybach was telling us lo these many years ago. It sounds like the FAC committee did important work, and gives me hope that the next generation of PNW-ites is going forward with collaborative gusto and has learned from the past. Yay!