Legislation

Past management efforts have attempted to protect mature and ancient forest as well as roadless areas. The Northwest Forest Plan, developed under the direction of the Clinton Administration in 1994, intended to protect important forest habitat while also allowing for traditional timber harvest. As such, the plan zoned federal forest within the habitat range of the spotted owl into lands managed for traditional timber harvest and lands managed for ancient forest dependent species. Unfortunately the plan left nearly half of the GPNF’s remaining mature and ancient forest unprotected in areas to be managed for traditional timber harvest and portions of the land meant to serve as habitat for ancient forest species were nothing more than young, regrowing clear cuts. The Northwest forest plans value lies in the strategic decision to manage federal forestlands with landscape scale in mind- critical for the recovery of not only owls, but also wolves, salmon and host of other native species. We are working with Federal managers to ensure that the Forest Service properly  implements the Northwest Forest Plan with a restoration vision and landscape scale vision in mind.

    The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule protected the remaining inventoried roadless areas across the country from most development threats. This rule was developed after a lengthy public participation process that generated millions of comments in support of roadless area protection. President George W. Bush, after coming into office in 2001 quickly set about revising the rule to gut protection for roadless areas. Since that time this rule has been the center of much debate and the issue has yet to be fully resolved. We are working with other groups to ensure the continued preservation of our roadless areas.  

    The above examples are just a few of the laws and regulations that we work with everyday to ensure that our forest, watersheds, and the species that inhabit them are protected from ill conceived projects. Other regulations and laws that we are working with to ensure that protections for our forest and environment do not go unheeded are the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Protection Act and many other federal and state regulations.

    In addition to the already existing laws and regulation, we are engaged on working with national coalitions and other groups to work with federal and state legislators and state departments on new regulations, rules and reform of archaic laws. We hope that our efforts help shape the future environmental policies that affect our forests and watersheds.  For more information on our national campaigns please see our Policy Page.