Excluding O&C Lands From NSO Critical Habitat
and
Restoring Sustained Yield Management
Excluding O&C Lands from the 9.5 million acres previously designated as Northern Spotted Owl (NSO) Critical Habitat was a necessary first step for restoring sustained yield management as required by law. Maintaining that exclusion will be essential to the development of a new resource management plan (RMP) with a sustained yield strategy for all timberlands. Under a new RMP with a thoughtful sustained yield strategy, NSO habitat can be maintained and developed to provide higher ecological function than exists today. With sustained yield management the O&C lands will continue to provide NSO nesting, roosting, foraging and dispersal habitat, as well as a broad range of other economic and environmental values.
The O&C timberlands encompass approximately 2.1 million acres in western Oregon that are administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These lands are unique among federal lands with the O&C Act directing forest management under the principle of sustained yield (SY), annual harvest of at least 500 million board feet (MMBF), and 50 percent revenue sharing from the sale of that timber with the 18 O&C Counties. SY management simply means a rate of harvest is in balance with and does not exceed the annual growth of the forest. This annual productive capacity for the O&C is at least 1.2 billion board feet. The 500 MMBF minimum harvest level under the O&C Act is a mere 40 percent of that productive capacity. This modest level of SY management permits great flexibility for the forest to simultaneously provide multiple economic and environmental values for the local communities and the nation.
Total Standing Volume and Harvest – When the O&C Act was established in 1937 it was estimated that there was 50 billion board feet of standing timber volume. Over the last 80+ years over 50 billion board feet has been harvested. BLM has determined that over 73 billion board feet is standing today. Over 50 percent of the O&C is currently “older forest” that is 80 years and older. Over 23 percent of the forest is 160 years and older. A full range of forest conditions, young to very old, can be maintained over time with sustained yield management.
Revenue – The current BLM SY strategy applicable to just 20 percent of the O&C land base is estimated to produce timber payments to Counties of $25.6 million dollars annually, if fully implemented. That revenue level has yet to be realized from the 2016 RMP. Harvest levels at the 500+ MMBF employing a wider range of SY practices would produce $75+ million in revenue to the Counties. The increase in total timber revenue would add not only to the Counties’ 50 percent of revenue but also to the US Treasury as part of the 50 percent retained by the federal government. The Counties’ share of revenue is utilized by each of the 18 O&C Counties to provide essential public services that meet the individual needs of the mostly rural communities.
Sustained Yield Curtailment – Since the early 1990s the Federal government’s policies and regulations have resulted in RMPs that have sharply reduced the O&C lands available for sustained yield management and have produced a fraction of the 500 MMBF minimum harvest level. The curtailment of SY flows originally and primarily from the ESA listing of the NSO.
- Northwest Forest Plan/1995 RMPs allocated only 27 percent of the forest to SY management. The plan declared an Allowable Sale Quantity (ASQ) of 203 million board feet that was never produced by the BLM.
- 2011 Recovery Plan (RP) for the NSO established further SY restrictions. Legally, the RP is only supposed to provide advisory guidelines, but the guidelines have been treated and mandatory and binding:
- Recovery Action 32 – Retaining essentially all older and structurally complex forest.
- Recovery Action 10 – Retaining all NSO habitats within 1+ mile radius of nest sites.
- No post fire salvage of timber.
- 2012 Critical Habitat (CH) 53 percent of the O&C was designated as CH for the NSO. 42 percent of this designation was not suitable habitat. The CH designation incorporated the RP restrictions as assumed to be in effect. The CH economic analysis assumed the effects from the RP were required and in place and discounted them as not being part of the CH economic impacts.
- RP/CH Effects – 2016 BLM RMP – Allocated only 20 percent of the O&C timberlands to SY management and declared an ASQ of 205 MMBF.
- The BLM designed a Late-Successional Reserve (LSR) large block older forest network in which SY is precluded.
- The BLM did not incorporate 483,000 acres of CH in the LSR design.
- The BLM designated an additional 249,000 acres of LSR that was not CH.
- 40 percent of the lands allocated to SY management were designated CH.
- BLM assumed that the 35 percent of lands allocated to SY that contained owl sites were available for harvest when they declared the ASQ. Nevertheless, BLM has placed an indefinite deferral of harvest around owl sites (“No Take”) which if not lifted would result in a 50 percent reduction in the declared ASQ.
- Recent years’ wildfires on the O&C have resulted in hundreds of thousands of acres of burned timber that was not salvaged due to the RP/CH. The BLM management strategy under the 2016 RMP is inadequate to get ahead of the wildfire problem in southern Oregon.
- The BLM designed a Late-Successional Reserve (LSR) large block older forest network in which SY is precluded.
Recent Court Rulings – Several recent court rulings are setting the stage for restoring SY management on the O&C lands.
- November 2018 – Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service – The Supreme Court ruled that CH can only include land that is actual habitat at the time of the designation.
- November 2019 – O&C Counties v. Pendley – District Judge Leon ruled the 2016 RMPs violated the O&C Act. He stated all O&C lands timberlands “must be managed for permanent forest and the timber grown on that land must be sold, cut, and removed in conformity with the princp[le] of sustained yield”. He has not yet ordered a remedy but will almost certainly order development of a new RMP.
- April 2020 – Council of Carpenters v. Bernhardt – The parties filed a stipulated settlement agreement in a long running case over the 2012 designation of NSO CH. The settlement required USF&WS to propose exclusions from the designation by July 15 and to finalize the exclusions by the end of 2020. Proposed exclusions were to be evaluated under ESA Section 4(b)(2): “The Secretary must designate critical habitat based on the best scientific and commercial data available after considering the economic impact, the impact on national security and any other relevant impact.” In early 2021, the O&C lands were excluded from CH. The incoming Biden administration has sought to delay and is likely to seek reversal of the O&C exclusion from CH.
O&C – Sustained Yield Management Opportunity – Given the O&C Act’s minimum harvest level of 500 MMBF is only 40 percent of the capacity of these lands to produce timber, the current circumstances present a great opportunity to simultaneously provide multiple environmental values in addition to timber, jobs, and revenue. These values include clean water, recreation, a wide range of wildlife habitats including NSO habitat, increased carbon storage, access to public lands and healthy forests. A SY strategy that provides 500+ MMBF on the O&C can employ a variety of practices to simultaneously achieve these multiple objectives. Possible SY strategies include:
- No Harvest in Congressionally Reserved Areas, which might include Wild and Scenic River corridors, wilderness areas, and similar reserve designations that Congress has placed on certain parts of the O&C Lands.
- Maintain Tree Cover in Riparian Areas that are determined to be necessary for compliance with mandatory federal standards under the Clean Water Act. This can provide ecological values throughout the stream network to sustain water quality and fish habitat as well as NSO habitat.
- Extended Cycles of Harvest, which keeps trees on the landscape for 100 years or more. Landscape level concentrations of older forest habitats can be developed and maintained with extended cycles of harvest. Developing and maintaining higher levels of older forest will continue to increase carbon sequestration over what exists today.
- Tree Retention – Retaining some live and dead trees with each harvest carries forward older tree structural attributes into the next generation of the forest. Retaining these structural elements greatly speeds up the time which an individual stand can become suitable NSO habitat.
- Thinning for Fire Resiliency – Fire exclusion practices and lack of harvest has resulted in high risk fire conditions in southern Oregon. Communities in that region have suffered from large wildfires and the associated health impacts from wildfire smoke. Forest scientists have called for accelerated levels of thinning to reduce this risk by improving forest resiliency. The roads network needed for forest management also facilitates access for fire fighters and control these fires before they become large.
- Wide Range of Forest Conditions – Different wildlife species utilize different forest conditions. Deer and elk, for instance, rely on younger forests as their preferred habitat. Recreational users also seek out a range of forest conditions for hunting, fishing, and hiking. SY practices can be employed to renew and sustain a wide range of forest conditions from young to very old on the O&C timberlands.
The AOCC website – has extensive information on the O&C and SY management.
- Background on SY Management – Link – SY Management
- A Scenario of Future O&C Management – Link – Scenario of Future Management