Northwest Forest Plan

Each national forest operates under a Land Management Plan, as required by the National Forest Management Act (NFMA). Land Management Plans, often called "Forest Plans", provide broad direction and guidance on how national forestlands will be managed for 10 to 15 years. The National Forest Management Act also requires forests to revise their Forest Plans. Many of the national forests in the northwest have Forest Plans that were published in the 1980s and early 1990s were amended by the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) in 1994.

The Northwest Forest Plan was adopted in 1994 with the intent of protecting the critical habitat of the northern spotted owl while maintaining a viable forest products industry in the Pacific Northwest. In total, the NWFP amended 26 land use plans, including 17 National Forest and seven Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans across Washington, Oregon, and California within the range of the northern spotted owl. The NWFP established standards and guidelines to meet the intent to pursue an ecosystem management, scientifically supported approach to forest management. The goal of this approach was to maintain healthy forest habitat to support native species, watershed health and function, and a sustainable supply of timber and other forest products to help preserve the stability of local and regional economies. For more information on NWFP monitoring, visit  https://www.fs.fed.us/r6/reo/monitoring/. 

The Pacific Northwest (OR, WA) and Pacific Southwest (CA) Regions of the U.S. Forest Service are continuing a public conversation on the process for revising forest land management plans within the Nothwest Forest Plan amendment area. The Forest Service will follow the principles established by the Regional Interagency Executive Committee framework in its plan revision processes.

All new plan revision efforts will follow the 2012 planning regulations. Our goal is to ensure an adaptive land management planning process that is inclusive, efficient, collaborative and science-based to promote healthy, resilient, diverse and productive National Forests and Grasslands. For a copy of the 2012 planning rule, its history, public collaboration on the rule, and more please visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/planningrule/home .

Public Listening Sessions

In March through June of 2015, the Forest Service held 19 listening sessions across the Northwest and northern California to:

1. Share information about plan revision and the role of science,
2. Outline our current thinking about a plan revision strategy, and
3. Gather ideas from the public on the revision process.

We held 3 bi-regional listening sessions in coordination with Region 5 (California) and 16 forest-level listening sessions. In total, over 900 people participated. Thank you! 

Listening session participants shared a broad range of ideas, and we summarized the feedback into three main topics: public engagement, science, and overarching plan revision interests. The summary report can be downloaded in whole or in parts below. Listening session feedback is already being used to shape our plan revision strategy, and we look forward to incorporating additional ideas as we move forward.

View  Plan Revision Listening Sessions Summary Reports and Materials.

Northwest Forest Plan 20-Year Monitoring Reports

The Forest Service Research Station hosted a public forum to share key findings of the Northwest Forest Plan 20-Year Monitoring Reports on June 9 in Vancouver, WA. The forum included a series of presentations on the reports’ key findings, which can be accessed at the Regional Ecosystem Office forum website: http://www.reo.gov/monitoring/reports/20yr-report/forum/

Background

• Our National Forest activities are guided by Land Management Plans, also known as Forest Plans. In the Northwest, we have 17 neighboring forests across WA, OR and northern CA where management is guided similarly for a range of social, economic, and ecological issues by a 1994 plan amendment referred to as the Northwest Forest Plan.
• Management practices, science, resource needs and local economies have changed in the past 25 years, and current forest plans do not reflect the latest scientific information or emerging issues we need to consider in our plans to help guide future management.
• Critical to modernizing current plans is meaningful input from local and state government, tribes and the public at large. During the first step towards updating forest plans, we listened to the public in 2015 and heard from stakeholder groups that best available scientific information is important to inform these updates.
• As a next step, the agency committed to completing a science synthesis to capture this science in the NWFP area. There are two other syntheses that collectively cover the larger Bioregional Assessment area:
  • 2018 Synthesis of science to inform land management within the Northwest Forest Plan area,
  • 2014’s Science synthesis to support socioecological resilience in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range,
  • 2020 Northeastern California plateaus bioregion science synthesis .
• The next step is the 2020 Bioregional Assessment of Northwest Forests that takes the information from the synthesis and other data, considers emerging issues and problems in existing plans, and constructs a summary document pointing out the most critical issues to address in future planning updates. The bioregional assessment will be used to facilitate further dialogue with our stakeholders as well as help develop a strategic path forward for updating forest plans.

The Bioregional Assessment illustrates both the current ecological, social, and economic conditions and trends on national forests within the Northwest Forest Plan amendment area and two adjacent units.

• The Bioregional Assessment will better prepare forests in the northwest to modernize their land management plans, which are between 20 and 30 years old.
• The Bioregional Assessment captures new science and changes in demographics, industry, climate, recreational use, wildfire behavior, and protected species in the assessment area.
• The Bioregional Assessment identifies critical planning issues that span national forest boundaries and lets the forests use the information for future planning.
• The assessment is built on nearly 25 years of monitoring data, fire-risk assessments, state action plans, public listening sessions from 2015, and a synthesis of best available science prepared and publicly vetted in 2018.

The Bioregional Assessment provides land managers the information they need to make the best possible decision when modernizing land management plans.

• The Forest Service wants to keep management direction that’s working well while making changes to meet today’s social, economic, and ecological challenges.
• Updating land management plans will not resolve all issues but can help to improve social and economic sustainability and better meet the needs of local communities.
• Modernizing plans will align them with newer policies, such as the 2012 planning rule, that emphasize an adaptive planning process and resilience to climate change impacts.

The Bioregional Assessment highlights the most prominent, shared management issues that are influenced by land management plans, taking into consideration what we have heard from the public, internal engagement, the science synthesis, our State partners, and other information collected over the years.

• The Bioregional Assessment makes key recommendations on Ecological Integrity, Fire and Fuels Management, Sustainable Timber and Forests Products, Habitat Management, and Sustainable Recreation and Infrastructure.
• The assessment identifies where there is a need for consistency in management across national forests in the BioA area, as well as where the need for updated management direction is more urgent than other areas due to risks to community well-being and ecosystem resilience if action is not taken in a timely manner.
• For decades, invasive species, wildfire, and climate change have affected national forests and grasslands, their numerous benefits and sustainability in the assessment area.
• The Forest Service is committed to public and firefighter safety, especially in forest communities at risk from wildfire.
• About 7.4 million acres across the assessment area need mechanical or fire restoration treatments, including the frequent-fire-dependent ecosystems east of the Cascade Range, the Klamath Mountains and the southern coastal ecoregion.
• Wildfires impact air, water, energy infrastructure, recreation and transportation. Fire plays a key ecological role in national forests and grasslands, but often occurs in undesired places and times.
• Providing a predictable and sustainable timber supply is a core component of the Forest Service mission, and many rural communities in and around the BioA area that rely on federal timber have been socially and economically affected by declines since the 1990s.
• Since 2005, timber production levels have remained relatively stable, producing an average of 450 million board feet per year from Forest Service lands within the Northwest Forest Plan area.
• Recent harvest levels have been regionally stable at about 72 percent anticipated timber production, but do not meet the levels projected by the Northwest Forest Plan.
• The reserve system has conserved northern spotted owl habitat on federally managed lands, but barred owl expansion and habitat disturbances on adjacent lands continue to affect populations.
• The lack of uniform recreation management can be confusing and limits how we address management concerns across jurisdictions for resources like trails and designated wilderness.

The Forest Service is exploring options to update land management plans for 17 units across Washington, Oregon and California.

• This assessment will help the agency consider innovative planning strategies to better manage national forests and grasslands with a variety of challenges and potential solutions.
• The Bioregional Assessment is the start of a conversation about modernizing all existing land management plans within the bioregional area.
• During the next couple of years, there will be several opportunities to engage in the topics covered in the assessment.
• Balancing complex ecosystems with the growing social and economic needs in the assessment area will take a commitment to ongoing collaboration to develop solutions that benefit everyone.
• The Forest Service works alongside Tribes, states, counties, and communities to build working relationships, trust, and capacity while developing goals and potential management approaches.

Based on the Bioregional Assessment findings, land management plans may be amended or revised at the same time or in groups according to common features like geography and ecosystems.

• No decision has been made on which forests might modernize first or whether they will all modernize at the same time.
• It is important for land managers to start preparing for the many tasks required in revision or amendments under the 2012 Planning Rule.
• The most urgent need is to restore fire’s natural role in the frequent-fire dependent ecosystems closest to communities in the eastern Cascade Mountains, Klamath Mountains of southern Oregon and northern California, and the southern Coastal Mountains.
• Based on that urgency, a cohort of northern California units and the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in Southern Oregon are being considered as the first to begin plan modernization. 
• Northern California cohort includes the Klamath and Butte Valley Grassland, Six Rivers, Shasta-Trinity, and Mendocino National Forests.
• The Forest Service will share more information once a decision is made on how to modernize the plans in the assessment area.
• Plan modernization efforts in the assessment area will be a collaborative effort between the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest regions.