Rule Making for Conservation Areas on State Forests

1. Rule Making for Conservation Areas on State Forests John Day, OR November 7, 2012 Agenda Item 5

2. Presentation Outline • Background and BOF direction from July 26 meeting • “Pre-Draft” rule language review • Summary of proposed draft rule language • Recommendation to initiate formal rule making • Next Steps

3. Board Direction from July 26th Divide Special Stewardship Classification into: Special Use: Transmission, recreation, easements, etc. High Value Conservation Areas: Aquatic, wildlife, plants, etc.

4. Special Stewardship • (c) Special Stewardship lands are those for which a forest management plan, habitat conservation plan, or other legal requirement identifies one or more of the following: a legal or contractual constraint dominates the management of the lands and precludes the integrated management of all forest resources; one or more forest resources are present which require a level of protection that precludes the integrated management of all forest resources; lands are committed to a specific use and management activities are limited to those that are compatible with the specific use.

5. Conservation Areas • Areas of the forest where natural resources are present which require a level of protection that precludes the integrated management of all forest resources. • Lands are committed to a specific conservation value and management activities are limited to those that are compatible with the specific value

6. Preliminary review of Pre-Draft rule language • Forest Trust Land Advisory Committee • State Forests Advisory Committee • North Coast State Forests Coalition • ODF staff

7. Minor Revisions to Pre-Draft rule language • Clarification of new class definitions • Identify significant differences between the Special Use and High Value Conservation Area Classifications

8. Comments/Input deferred to formal rule making process • Further review/edits to definitions • Analyze sub-classes for appropriate class: operationally limited, deeds, recreation, visual

9. Summary of Proposed Rule Amendments

10. Subsection 3(c), page 2: • Creates and defines the new classification “Special Use” • Special Use areas are those lands for which a forest management plan, habitat conservation plan, or other legal requirement identifies one or more of the following: a legal or contractual constraint dominates the management of the lands and precludes the integrated management of all forest resources; lands are committed to a specific use and management activities are limited to those that are compatible with the specific use

11. Subsection 3(d), page 3: • Creates and defines the new classification “High Value Conservation Areas” • High Value Conservation Areas are lands for which a forest management plan, habitat conservation plan, or other legal requirement identifies areas in the landscape which need to be appropriately managed in order to maintain, enhance, or restore important conservation values and one or more of the following: a legal or contractual constraint dominates the management of the lands and directs management of forest resource; lands are committed to a specific conservation value and management activities are limited to those that are compatible with achieving goals for the specific conservation value.

12. Subsection 4(c) and (d), page 4: • Describes the types of management that occurs within each new Classification • Subsection 5(c) , page 4: • Range of management activities under the two new classifications

13. Recommendation • Direct the agency to initiate the formal administrative rule making process for OAR 629-035-0055

14. Next Steps Process Update Jan 2013 BOF meeting Public Hearings Feb-March 2013 Request for BOF Rule Approval June 2013

15. The word “restricts” was inadvertently removed from the “Easements” sub-class (Page 3) • The sentence describing the “Visual” sub-class also needs some revisions to make it grammatically correct. (Page 4)