Federal Forestlands Advisory Committee Situation Assessment

1. Federal Forestlands Advisory Committee Situation Assessment Purpose: To provide background information on forest conditions and trends to help identify the “most pressing problems” that need to be addressed in the Guidance Document

2. What we’ll cover • Survey Research on Forest Issues • Forestland Ownership and Allocation • Sustainability • Fish and wildlife • Productive capacity • Forest health • Soil, air, water quality • Carbon • Socio-economic • Questions

3. Forest Issues (Oregon) Very Concerned Somewhat Concerned Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall, Inc. 2006.

4. Water Quality

5. Importance of Water Quality Protection in Forest Management Activities Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall, Inc. 2006.

6. Remedies For Water Quality Concerns – Aided and Unaided • Unaided • Stop pollution/Cleanliness - 22% • More Protection/Monitoring - 13% • More/Enforce Laws/Regulations - 10% • Better Management/Accountability - 9% • Aided (Strongly Agree) • Leave streamside buffers– 62% • Require forest managers to minimize erosion – 55% • Reduce harvesting and use alternatives to wood - 27% % Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall, Inc. 2006.

7. Fish and Wildlife

8. National forests should provide for as much diversity of animals and plants as possible. Institute for a Sustainable Environment. 2002.

9. Jobs and Revenue

10. Old growth forests should NOT be harvested in order to provide ecosystems for wildlife like spotted owls and salmon. (National Forests) Institute for a Sustainable Environment. 2002.

11. National forests that are NOT old growth SHOULD be harvested to provide jobs and forest products (National Forests) Institute for a Sustainable Environment. 2002.

12. For each, please tell me how serious aproblem it is for Oregon’s rural communities Davis, Hibbits, and McCaig, Inc. 2001 .

13. Fire / Forest Health

14. Wildfire Danger Very Concerned Davis, Hibbits, and McCaig, Inc. 2001 .

15. Necessary To Use Controlled Fires To Eliminate Excess Fuel Davis, Hibbits, and McCaig, Inc. 2001 .

16. Necessary To Thin Trees From Crowed Forests Davis, Hibbits, and McCaig, Inc. 2001 .

17. Balanced Forest Management

18. National forests should be managed to balancetimber harvest, wildlife conservation, recreation and other forest values. Institute for a Sustainable Environment. 2002.

19. “Some people say Oregon generally has a ‘balanced’ approach to forest management while other people feel things are out of balance. Which way do you feel?” Davis, Hibbits, and McCaig, Inc. 2001 .

20. Balance For FederalForestlands Management Meeting a wide range of social needs including employment, recreation, and revenues to support healthy rural communities, and providing aesthetic and spiritual values32% Protection of water quality and wildlife habitat 40% Growing forests for products people use29% Davis, Hibbits, and McCaig, Inc. 2001 .

21. Forest Ownership and Allocation

22. Forestland OwnershipWestern Oregon

23. Forestland Ownership Eastern Oregon

24. Land AllocationSimple 3 Category SystemEach Providing a Blend of Environmental, Social, and Economic Outputs • Reserves • No scheduled timber harvest - harvest only to benefit nontimber values • Multi-resource • Laws or plans significantly reduce harvest to provide for other values • Wood production • Scheduled timber harvest occurs and sustainable supplies of timber are anticipated

25. General Land Use Allocation by Ecoregion

26. General Land Use AllocationStatewide

27. Maintain Plant and Animal Populations

28. Oregon Conservation Strategy (ODFW) • Goals - Maintain healthy populations • Maintain habitat, at-risk-species, reverse species declines • Long-term, big picture, blue print • Statewide issues: • Land use changes, • invasive species, • chg in disturbance regimes, • barriers to movement, • water quality, • institutional barriers to conservation

29. Oregon Conservation Strategy (Cont.) • Includes an ecoregional approach • Conservation Opportunity Areas • ID Strategy species and habitats • Issues and actions • Potential uses • As a reference • Set priorities • Build partnerships • Measure success • Available at: www.dfw.state.or.us/conservationstrategy

30. Maintain Productive Capacity – Economic Well-being

31. 11000 10500 10000 Timberland Area (thousands of acres) 9500 9000 (-22%) 8500 1960 1970 1980 1990 Year Change in Private Timberland Area in Oregon, 1953-1997 • Landbase relatively • stable over past • 20-years • May be changing • Land sales to • people with little • background in • forestry • Changes in Land use • planning laws • (M - 37) • Declining markets • in E. Oregon Source: Donnegan, 2001. Assessing temporal trends in Forest Inventory and Analysis data: Applications to Criteria and Indicators. Wood Compatibility Workshop, Dec. 5-7, 2001. Base dataset: Resource Planning Act, 2000.

32. OREGON TIMBER HARVESTActual Harvest vs. Sustainable (Public w/o Congressionally Reserved)

33. Annual Growth and Mortality of Sawtimber on Non-congressionally withdrawn Timberland (W. Oregon) E.D Hovee & Co. Baseline Growth and Mortality Assessment Private and Other 1990 – 99, Federal 1993 - 2004

34. Annual Growth and Mortality of Sawtimber on Non-congressionally withdrawn Timberland (E. Oregon) E.D Hovee & Co. Baseline Growth and Mortality Assessment Private and Other 1990 – 99, Federal 1993 - 2004

35. Maintain the Health of Forest Ecosystems

37. Annual acres of Forests needing treatment by category in 20, 25 year restoration timeframes MacDonald, et. al. 2006. The Condition of Oregon’s Forests and Woodlands: Implications for the Effective Conservation of Biodiversity. The Nature Conservancy.

38. Acres infested with bark beetles in Oregon

39. Major Issues Include: • Changes in fire frequency, leading to type conversions of habitat (cheatgrass, Arundo) • Changes in nutrient cycling (cheatgrass, knotweed) • Toxicity to livestock (tansy ragwort, yellow starthistle) • Loss of forage quality and quantity for big game (leafy spurge, knapweeds, yellow starthistle) • Invasive shrubs acting as a population sink for native birds due to increased predation of nests within invasive shrubs (buckthorn) • Changes in stream and river hydrology (knotweed, blackberry) • Loss of nesting habitat and increased nest predation on endangered snowy plovers (European beachgrass)

40. Maintain Soil, Air, and Water Quality

41. Air Quality • 69% Fine Particulate Emissions from Wildfire

42. Water Quality • 303(d) Listings on Federal Land • 4700 miles high temperature • 340 miles sedimentation • 70 miles toxics % Wadeable Stream Miles that Fail to Meet Standards (Coho ESU)

43. Drinking Water Quality • 75% of municipal watersheds are forested • USFS – 4.3 million acres • BLM – 2.6 million acres • Primary concerns include: • Sedimentation / turbidity • Pesticides • Fire retardants

44. Enhance Carbon Storage – Climate Change

45. Climate Change • Increase in rare wildland fire conditions • Fire - primary agent of vegetation change • Wholesale conversions of habitats • Temperate dry forests to grasslands • Moist tropical forests to dry woodlands • High-severity fires eliminate entire forests • Greater risk of extinction • Recommended actions include: • Identify fire-dependent or fire-sensitive ecosystems • consider climate change and variability when developing plans • Consider alternate climate scenarios when determining post-fire vegetation management • Reduce uncharacteristic fuel levels Source: ASSOCIATION FOR FIRE ECOLOGY. SAN DIEGO DECLARATION ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND FIRE MANAGEMENT

46. Maintain Socio-economic Benefits

48. Distressed Areas in Oregon – 2005

49. Average Earnings Per Job

50. Mill Closures and Related Job Losses, 1980-2003 Source: Ehinger and Associates, 2003