Forest science foundation study released - status quo on logging and owl

Scientists are facing a moving target when trying to predict the future in regards to forest health and management in a new era of climate change and mega-fires, they agreed in a new voluminous study released by the U.S. Forest Service this week. But research indicates the status quo of protecting threatened species and limiting logging, as part of the Pacific Northwest Forest Plan (PNFP), might still be the best way to manage the forests. The 919-page tome outlines what scientists have learned in the last 12 years since the last “synthesis of science” was published, and will serve as the scientific foundation for land management planning in Western Washington, Oregon and Northern California. Although it provides new information for the PNFP, implemented 24 years ago, it is not a decision-making document. Curry Countians hurt by the limitations put on logging in the 1990s, however, might not be happy to learn the report indicates the status quo — limiting logging and protecting the owl — might be the path to continue taking. Based on the best available scientific data at the time, crafters of the PNFP were challenged to make a plan that resolved debates about old-growth forests and endangered species while permitting logging on 24 million acres in 17 Northwest national forests. That might not change, but new data in the past quarter-century might change how things are approached in the forest. While the report addresses an array of historical information, including the types of trees that grow in various locations throughout the state, the roles snags play in animal habitat, bug and pathogen infestations, it also dedicates a significant portion to climate change and wildfires, two elements increasingly common — and increasingly pertinent in discussions — in forests and grasslands throughout the U.S...MORE