Traveling through any National Forest or Bureau of Land Management (BLM) forest in Oregon will reveal diverse management practices.  Unlike National Parks or congressionally-designated Wilderness areas, most National Forests and BLM forests are open to logging and road-building.

In 1969, growing concern over environmental degradation led to the creation of one the country’s most important environmental laws, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  NEPA mandates that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS, the management agency for National Forests) and BLM create documents analyzing potential impacts to the environment, society, or other resources, for any proposed project.  It requires analysis of alternatives to the proposed action and gathering public comments.  The agency analysis and public comments guide the USFS or BLM decision on the size, degree, and method of logging.  Following this decision, the trees are auctioned off to the highest bidder in the timber industry to be logged according to the project guidelines.

In the early 1990’s logging on federal lands declined from the reckless levels of the previous decade, the result of changing economics and growing environmental problems.  Forest Service and BLM logging practices were violating laws like NEPA, the federal Endangered Species Act, and the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (which requires the Forest Service to manage lands for the survival of wildlife, fish, and plants in addition to logging).  Public opposition to the logging of dwindling old-growth forests, and its effect on threatened Northern spotted owls and other wildlife, forced federal agencies to change course.

In an effort to address concerns for protecting both logging jobs and wildlife dependant upon old- growth forests, a team of 600 specialists drafted the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP), officially adopted in 1993.  USFS and BLM lands within the range of the Northern spotted owl (mostly West of the Cascades, including Washington, Oregon, and Northern California) are now governed by the NWFP’s rules. 

Essentially, the Northwest Forest Plan outlines management policies for the land areas it defined:

Late Successional Reserves (LSR):  The NWFP set aside 30%, or 7.4 million acres, of federal land as LSR.  The intent is to protect current old-growth forests and wildlife habitat, as well as develop future old-growth habitat.  Within LSRs, forests older than 80 years are protected from most logging.  Young plantations within LSRs  can be thinned as long as it is deemed neutral or beneficial to the creation of old-growth forest conditions. 

Riparian Reserves (RR):  The NWFP designated 10% of federal forest land, or 2.6 million acres, for the protection of sensitive land next to lakes, streams, marshes, and wetlands. RRs are designed to ensure clean water for wildlife and people and provide essential habitat for fish spawning.  Logging is frequently permitted in these highly sensitive areas under the guise of improving the riparian forest.

Matrix:  Over 4 million acres are designated as “matrix”, land that is managed for multiple uses including timber harvest, under the NWFP.  These areas are typically on 34-60 year logging rotations, but old-growth trees and forests are not off-limits.  As a guideline, no more than 85% of the trees in any harvest unit can be cut.

Adaptive Management Areas (AMA):  AMAs are designed as experimental areas to explore alternative management ideas and strategies.  These 1.5 million acres fall on LSR, RR, and Matrix lands and are set aside to find new ways to meet the region’s social, economic and ecological needs.  Despite good intentions behind AMAs, they often lead to relaxed logging management.  Because they are exempt from many NWFP rules, agencies and timber companies have been known to aggressively log these areas.

To learn more about management under the Northwest Forest Plan, it's other programs to protect fish and wildlife, and the many efforts by the timber industry and Bush administration to weaken or eliminate it, click here.

Public forests east of the Cascades and outside the range of the Northern spotted owl are not subject to the Northwest Forest Plan.