The Northwest Forest Plan, the landmark policy put in place in 1994 with the intent of saving the northern spotted owl and other old growth-dependent species, is up for revision in the coming year….
Read More >Since 1994, the Northwest Forest Plan has governed management of national forests across the Pacific Northwest. It was developed to strike a balance between conservation of old-growth wildlife habitat and the needs of human communities in a rapidly growing region…
Read More >The northwest timber wars of the 1980s and early 90s came to an end–in theory–with the creation of the Northwest Forest Plan, put into effect in 1994. It called for greatly reduced logging of national forests, and greater protection for the spotted owl and other sensitive forest creatures…
Read More >America’s oldest trees, most of which are in the West, will get added protection from wildfire and climate change under updated forest plans from the U.S. Forest Service. In announcements over the past week, officials from the Forest Service said they would begin the process of amending forest management plans…
Read More >The drive from Seattle into the Cascade mountains quickly plunges into dense, green tunnels of evergreen forest — and just as rapidly, reveals patches where the forest has been cleared. Nestled among the trees is the small town of Darrington…
Read More >The Klamath National Forest has completed the April 1 snow surveys. These measurements are a part of the statewide California Cooperative Snow Survey program, which helps the state forecast the quantity of water available for agriculture, power generation, recreation and stream flow releases later in the year…
Read More >Western states and cities are more reliant on drinking water from U.S. Forest Service lands than previously known. A first-of-its-kind study by the Forest Service reveals how some of the largest public water systems in the country rely on surface waters from the federal agency’s land…
Read More >Geologist Dr. Bob Carson explains the ancient origins of the Klamath Mountain Province from a gravel bar deep in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, along the wildest part of the Oregon’s Wild and Scenic Illinois River
Read More >During a recent trip to the McKenzie River area, Congressman Peter DeFazio tells Eugene Weekly that he’s seen more logging trucks in that one day than he’d normally see in a year.
Read More >The health and vitality of forest ecosystems in the Northwest, and how much timber should be cut from those forests, is laid out in the Northwest Forest Plan. But that plan was created in the mid-1990s, and has not changed substantially since then, says Norm Johnson, one of its developers. He and his longtime colleague, Jerry Franklin, recently penned an opinion piece in The Register-Guard newspaper, opposing the planned logging of about 2,000 acres of mature trees (100-150 years old) in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest. Johnson and Franklin say that in the time since the plan was written, forestry science has yielded a much deeper understanding of the ecological importance of these trees, including how they sequester carbon and provide habitat for countless species. Johnson and Franklin join us to discuss what’s at stake with this specific planned cut, and why they think new science should change the direction of forest management in Oregon.
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