01/06/2025
First Cut ON Northwest Forest Plan Amendment DEIS: It's a disaster!
Forest Service’s Preferred Option B
Late-Successional Reserves (LSRs)
Forest stands will be considered “young” up to 120 years of age.
Current NWFP definition of “mature” stands is 80 years or older.
Logging will be allowed in “young” stands in LSRs.
Currently, logging in LSRs is only allowed for the purpose of accelerating late-successional or old-growth conditions. New exceptions will allow logging to “restore habitat for species that depend upon younger stands” and to “achieve other desired conditions.”
Together, these provisions eliminate the core purpose of LSRs.
Matrix Lands
No genuine restrictions on logging in stands established after 1905 (up to 120 years old). The Forest Service aims to log 81,000 acres per decade “to bolster timber production.”
In stands established between 1825 and 1905 (up to 200 years old), logging will be allowed for multiple reasons at the Forest Service’s discretion, including the bogus wet forest exception for “reducing the risk of fire.”
This shift to allow logging in older age forest stands means such stands will never age into old growth for protection.
When Matrix logging is combined with relaxed logging provisions in LSRs, Option B is a disaster for wildlife, watersheds and carbon storage to help arrest a warming climate. All new logging will increase the risk of wildfire.
