In what may be "the largest single land-management program ever attempted" (Linda Kanamine, USA Today, 4/24), the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management Wednesday unveiled an ambitious "ecosystem management" plan covering a 144-million-acre area throughout the Columbia River basin and the northern Rockies.
The plan, nearly four years in the making, would broaden restrictions on logging, mining and grazing --especially near fish-bearing streams-- on more than 72 million acres of national forests and public lands in sections of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada and Utah.
The agencies backed the plan as the "preferred alternative" of seven options outlined in two draft environmental impact studies ordered by President Clinton in 1993 (Scott Sonner, AP/S.F. Chronicle/Examiner online, 4/23). The plan is meant to shift the feds toward an ecosystem-management approach, as opposed to the "forest-by-forest and district-by-district" approach of the past (William Crum, Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, 4/24). Officials explained that the proposal would give federal land managers added flexibility at the local level to balance environmental protection and commercial activities.
Will Stelle, Northwest Regional Director of the National Marine Fisheries Service: "This is probably the most significant and sophisticated land management strategy we have ever undertaken in this country."
The region covered by the management plan is home to several endangered species, including chinook and sockeye salmon and grizzly bears.
The Skinny on a Fat Management Plan
Logging levels "would be smaller than the annual average over the past 10 years for the region, but larger than the past three years," and then would be stabilized over time. The plan emphasizes salvage logging and controlled fires as means to reduce wildfires. The plan also proposes restoring stream banks degraded by cattle grazing and eroded by runoff from logged slopes (Sonner, AP/S.F. Chronicle/Examiner online).
Forest Service and land management officials estimate that if the plan went into effect, they would need another $125 million a year to improve habitat and protect species throughout the Columbia Basin. "Currently, the agencies spend only $650 million a year there" (Kanamine, USA Today). Jeff Walter, leader of the Boise-based team that prepared the studies, said the plan would lead to the creation of "thousands" of jobs for the restoration of roads, watershed improvements and thinning of dense forest stands.
Skepticism All Around
Environmentalists, tribal leaders and industry officials expressed skepticism about the government's ability to meet all of the goals outlined (Sonner, AP/S.F. Chronicle/Examiner online).
Enviromentalists said they hoped changes were being made from previous versions of the chosen option, known as Alternative 4, to further protect fish. Mike Anderson of the Wilderness Society said the option takes "a very aggressive approach" to encouraging salvage logging and thinning while doing "very little" to protect old-growth, riparian and roadless areas.
Rick Taylor of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission: "There is a heavy reliance on logging to fix problems logging caused. It doesn't make any sense."
Timber industry officials said they were pleased with the tone of the plan, but they feared the feds lack the resources to carry out the salvage logging and thinning.
The agencies will release final drafts of the plan in May, followed by a 120-day comment period. A final plan is due in the summer of 1998 (Crum, Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce).
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