DATE: February 23, 1994
RE: Release of Option 9
Here's information on the Final Environmental Impact Statement, released today at briefings in the Pacific Northwest and Washington, D.C.
1. Full riparian protection has been increased on ephemeral streams. This effectively cuts the timber harvest in the spotted owl forests by 10 percent.
2. Management standards and guidelines and land allocations were revised throughout Option 9. Changes include: (1) added protection for bat roosting sites; (2) increased retention of old-growth stands in watersheds with less than 15 percent old-growth forest; (3) 100 acre circles are drawn around spotted owl nest-sites in the Matrix and in Adaptive Management Areas, thereby increasing the area included in Late-Successional Reserves; (4) further management changes for some rare and endemic species.
3. The 180 year rotation requirement for Northern California National Forests was dropped in favor of Forest Plan standards and guidelines. This increases the Probable Sale Quantity (PSQ) of Option 9 by an estimated 67 MMBF.
4. Twenty-one "Managed Late-Successional Areas" totaling 102,000 acres were added for know "owl activity centers" in the Washington Eastern Cascades and the California Cascades Provinces. Management in these areas will include "certain silvicultural treatments and fire hazard reduction treatments" to prevent catastrophic wildfire damage.
5. Data from 1992 and 1993 spotted owl counts were analyzed, but it appears that the latest information on declining fertility among northern spotted owls was not assessed.
6. The maximum thinning age for forests in the Northern Coast Range Adaptive Management Area in the Siuslaw National Forest was raised to 110 years. The practical effect of this change is to allow increased logging in this already fragmented coastal forest.
7. The total cut for the area encompassed by the EIS will fall from an estimated 1,050 MMBF to 958 MMBF per year, not including culls, firewood and "other products" that bring the estimated cut to 1,100 MMBF.
8. Claims were made during a briefing in Washington, D.C. that the changes incorporated in the EIS will enhance viability ratings for salmon to over 80 percent. Unfortunately, other viability ratings were not given.
9. "In Late-Successional Reserves, under Alternative 9, timber management can only occur in stands which are less than 80 years old. Furthermore, the silvicultural practice must be beneficial to old growth. Accordingly, old growth areas within Late-Successional Reserves will be off-limits except in cases of salvage of trees following fire, insect infestation, or other catastrophic events." The specification that logging must be "beneficial," instead of neutral or beneficial, is a change from the Draft EIS.
As you can see, the final EIS fails to include inviolate reserves, protection for roadless areas and critical watersheds outside of reserves, elimination of Adaptive Management Areas, and a reduction of thinning and salvage. The EIS leaves over 25 percent of the remaining old-growth ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest open to logging, and fails to adequately provide for the long-term viability of hundreds of species.
Instead, the new EIS increases logging opportunities in Northern California, the Coastal Forests of Oregon, and probably the Finney Adaptive Management Area in Northern Washington. While promises are made regarding increased viability ratings for salmon, until the full document is made available, there is no way of judging whether the EIS will increase the viability ratings of old growth species in the Pacific Northwest.
It appears that the Clinton Administration is going to continue to try to split hairs in an attempt to meet the requirements of Judge William Dwyer. I expect that the Record of Decision, now scheduled for the end of March, will further fine-tune the EIS, without substantially changing the Reserve System.
To:Ancient Forest Activists
From:Bonnie Phillips-Howard, WAFC
Date:March 2, 1994
RE:Final SEIS and Record of Decision - The President's Plan
One More Letter, One More Time
As mentioned in WAFC's last Report From Washington, it is important to write one more letter, for the record, so that Administration officials and Members of Congress hear your voice of concern for a plan that got better, but just not good enough to protect the ancient forest ecosystem.
If the environmental community does not respond to the Final SEIS, the Administration may read this as "we are satisfied". So, please take the time to review the FSEIS, and the maps, look at your letter on the draft, plus any other new concerns, and write that final letter. Connectivity, including placement of late successional reserves, lack of adequate Roadless Area protection, and management activities in the matrix (or AMA's), continues to be one of the major issues on many National Forests, and you might want to particularly emphasize that issue.
The Record of Decision will be signed no later than March 31. To make a difference, your letter should be sent by March 15. But if you can't make that date, please write anyway.
Address your letter to: Robert T. Jacobs, Interagency SEIS Team Leader, P.O. Box 3623, Portland, OR 97208.
Copies should be sent to these decision-makers: Jim Lyons, Asst. Secretary for Natural Resources/Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 20250 FAX: 202/720-4732; George Frampton, Asst. Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks/Dept. of Interior, Washington, D.C. 20240 FAX: 202/208-4684; Katie McGinty, Director of Office of Environmental Policy, The Old Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20501 FAX: 202/456-6225; and your Senators and Representatives (Washington, D.C. zip codes 20510 and 20515, respectively).
Letters to the Editor during March are also very important.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1998
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited