title: The Northwest Forest Plan: origins, components, implementation experience, and suggestions for change.
abstract: In the 1990s the federal forests in the Pacific Northwest underwent the largest shift in management focus since their creation, from providing a sustained yield of timber to conserving biodiversity, with an emphasis on endangered species. Triggered by a legal challenge to the federal protection strategy for the Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), this shift was facilitated by a sequence of science assessments that culminated in the development of the Northwest Forest Plan. The plan, adopted in 1994, called for an extensive system of late-successional and riparian reserves along with some timber harvest on the intervening lands under a set of controls and safeguards. It has proven more successful in stopping actions harmful to conservation of old-growth forests and aquatic systems than in achieving restoration goals and economic and social goals. We make three suggestions that will allow the plan to achieve its goals: (1) recognize that the Northwest Forest Plan has evolved into an integrative conservation strategy, (2) conserve old-growth trees and forests wherever they occur and (3) manage federal forests as dynamic ecosystems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Management, College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA. jwt@forestry.umt.edu
authors.forename: Jack Ward
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Jerry E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Franklin
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: K Norman
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D016468:Forestry / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D015205:Northwestern United States; D014197:Trees