Bush Increases Old Growth Logging in Pacific Northwest

PORTLAND, Oregon, March 25, 2004 (ENS) - The Bush administration has amended the Northwest Forest Plan to allow more logging of old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. Two amendments finalized Tuesday by Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service officials relax environmental protections designed to safeguard rare species that depend on old growth forests and to prevent logging operations from adversely affecting water quality.

Critics say these revisions to the Northwest Forest Plan are a gift to the timber industry at the expense of endangered salmon and old growth forests.

The Northwest Forest Plan was created in 1994 by the Clinton administration in the wake of lawsuits centered on federal mismanagement of forests. The administration devised the plan to balance potential logging with protect for the northern spotted owl, wild salmon and hundreds of species associated with old growth forests.

The plan affects logging operations on some 24 million acres of federal lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in Washington, Oregon and Northern California.

Northern spotted owl and nestlings on their nest in an old growth snag. (Photo courtesy Bureau of Land Management)

One amendment eliminates the "survey and manage" standard that required federal officials to survey proposed logging areas for rare species associated with old growth forests and to establish logging buffers to protect them.

The standard covered some 300 species not currently protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, but dependent on the old growth forests managed by the plan. Timber interests argue the provision is unnecessary and delays approval of logging projects.

In its Record of Decision, the Bush administration wrote that the elimination of this provision "will result in continued species diversity and conservation while at the same time reducing costs and facilitating the agencies' ability to implement the forest management and timber production goals of the Northwest Forest Plan."

The administration said this amendment will save federal agencies some $16 million a year, but acknowledged in its decision puts some 47 species at higher risk of local extinction.

The second rule redefines the Aquatic Conservation Strategy, which was created as a measure to protect salmon populations.

The strategy calls on federal agencies to maintain and restore watersheds as they implement programs, including timber sales, on federal lands.

Originally, federal officials were required to examine the impact of how each individual project might impact protected fish and water quality, and to ensure each project must meet the regional plan's standard for waterways.

But the Bush administration agrees with the timber industry, which says that view is impractical and has lobbied for a broader approach.

The amendment allows federal officials to meet guidelines for the Aquatic Conservation Strategy for regional watersheds of some 30 to 150 square miles, rather than for each individual project.

Federal officials expect the revision will enable some 60 timber sales to move forward although they have been found illegal for failing to comply with the original strategy.

Critics say the revision of the Aquatic Conservation Strategy is an end-run around a 2001 decision by a federal appeals court. That ruling interpreted the Northwest Forest Plan as requiring the assessment of site-specific logging impacts as well as the overall regional impact of logging operations on national forests.

"The Aquatic Conservation Strategy is the first and best example of an ecosystem approach to managing watersheds and streamside forests on federal lands in the nation," said David Bayles of the Pacific Rivers Council. "This administration is determined to eliminate the ecosystem element from the strategy to allow for logging and road construction next to salmon streams and on steep slopes, where the most harm results."

Some 90 percent of the Pacific Northwest's old growth forests have been destroyed in the past century. (Photo courtesy Northwest Old Growth Campaign)

But conservationists contend the administration is being disingenuous when it calls its revisions a return to the "original intent" of the Northwest Forest Plan.

The plan never mandated logging, conservationists say, rather it specifically stated that no more than 1.1 billion board feet could be logged annually - a figure later revised to 805 million board feet.

The decisions reflect the administration's close ties to the timber industry, said Jeremy Hall of the Oregon Natural Resources Council Action, and run contrary to the public's support for protection of old growth forests.

Polls have repeatedly demonstrated that a majority of voters in Oregon and Washington support protecting all remaining mature and old growth forest.

"The Bush administration is making it easier to cut old growth trees for an industry that will fund its reelection campaign," Hall said. "The industry donated more than $1 million dollars to the President and his party and the payback is log trucks loaded with our biggest trees."

The two amendments are effective immediately and are not subject to protest or administrative appeal. The rules could be challenged in federal court - an option that conservationists say they are likely to pursue.

"This plan will not work for species, but it will work for timber interests," said Michael Mayer of the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice. "The Bush administration has chosen to reignite the timber wars."