The Forest Service is forming a new advisory committee for national forests managed under the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). The 20-member board will recommend changes to the 1994 plan, which dictates management of 19 national forests in Washington, Oregon, and northern California.
The advisory committee will consist of 20 members approved by the Secretary of Agriculture. Membership will include:
- “Up to 9 members” with relevant scientific expertise.
- “Up to 7 members representing organizations that share a collective interest in the health and sustainability of the [affected] National Forest System lands.”
- “Up to 4 members representing state, county, and Tribal governments.”
According to the Forest Service, “The Committee will provide input on modernizing landscape management to promote sustainability, climate change adaptation, and wildfire resilience while addressing the increased demands on Northwest Forest Plan lands.” The committee will “assist the U.S. Forest Service transition to greater proactive wildfire risk reduction and related vegetation management,” indicating more intensive “forest treatments” that will include mechanical thinning and prescribed fire.
The committee will also be tasked with advising “how to protect and promote conservation of mature, old-growth forest while ensuring national forests are resilient to high-severity wildfire, insects, disease … .” Organizations like The Wilderness Society and The Pew Charitable Trusts have applauded the move as an important step toward fulfilling President Joe Biden’s Earth Day 2022 executive order, a primary goal of which is “Restoring and Conserving the Nation’s Forests, Including Mature and Old-Growth Forests.”
Whether such optimism is merited remains to be seen, given the committee’s role in ramping up logging under the guise of “proactive wildfire risk reduction.” The Forest Service’s reputation for having “never met a tree it didn’t want to cut” is underscored by the Forest Service web page devoted to NWFP modernization. Even though local timber-based economies had been in decline for decades prior to creation of the NWFP, the webpage states, “The goal to maintain a viable timber industry to sustain rural communities and economies was not fully realized.” Biden’s Earth Day executive order also hedges on protecting mature and old-growth forests by including an emphasis on “strengthening local economies.”
The federal government created the NWFP in response to pressure to stop clear-cutting old-growth forests, which culminated in the northern spotted owl court ruling and a “threatened” listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). FSEEE Executive Director Andy Stahl spearheaded the northern spotted owl campaign, and the ESA listing significantly curtailed old-growth logging in the region.
