THE WORLD’S LARGEST ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT PLAN: THE NORTHWEST FOREST PLAN AFTER A QUARTER-CENTURY

• Published in: Environmental law (Portland, Ore.) Ore.), 2022-03, Vol.52 (2), p.151-216
• Main Authors: Blumm, Michael C., Brown, Susan Jane M., Stewart-Fusek, Chelsea
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Clearcutting; Climate change; Company business management; Ecosystem management; Ecosystems; Endangered & extinct species; Endangered species; Environmental aspects; Environmental law; Environmental policy; Federal policy; Forest ecosystems; Forest management; Forests; History; Influence; Injunctions; International obligations; Landscape architecture; Local communities; Logging; Management; Methods; National Environmental Policy Act; Owls; Rural areas; Rural communities; Salmonids; Timber industry; Uncertainty; Wildfires; Wildlife; Wildlife habitats; Wildlife management
• ISSN: 0046-2276

For decades, the public forests of the Pacific Northwest were subject to widespread clearcutting of their old-growth trees as part of a federal policy promoting industrial logging. That era came to an end in the early 1990s, due to court injunctions enforcing environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act, as a response to diminishing old-growth dependent species like the northern spotted owl. Fulfilling a campaign promise to resolve the contentious issue by protecting both wildlife habitat and a logging industry important to local communities, President Clinton and his administration conducted a remarkable 1993 symposium on the economics and science of preserving rapidly disappearing habitat for Endangered Species Act-listed species like the northern spotted owl and several salmonids. The result was the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (the NFP or the Plan), widely recognized as the largest commitment to ecosystem management worldwide. Somewhat surprisingly, the NFP is still in effect over a quarter-century later, despite determined efforts to eviscerate it. This Article examines the NFP, its antecedents, provisions, court interpretations, and future. In many respects, despite persistent controversy over the legal underpinnings of the NFP, the Plan has provided substantial protection for the Northwest’s federal forests, and—although it did not end all public timber harvests—largely ended harvesting of public old-growth forests. Moreover, the Plan’s aquatic protection strategy has proved quite effective and worthy of emulation elsewhere. A postscript to this Article considers the effect of the recent Biden Administration executive order concerning old-growth forests onthe NFP. Although the Bush administration’s repeated efforts to terminatethe Plan failed, the Obama administration removed about ten percentof the federal forests subject to the Plan from its reach, substantially undermining its ecological premises. The courts have so far sustained these removals, casting a pall of uncertainty over efforts to update the NFP to reflect current challenges posed by wildfires and climate change. This Article suggests that the goals of a revised NFP should be linked to the role that federal public Pacific Northwest forests can play in the U.S.’ international obligations to combat climate change. We recommend a number of changes to the NFP, including ending both post-fire salvage sales and the logging of mature and ol