Northwest Forest Plan Review

California National Forests in the Northwest Plan Area
	Klamath NF
	Lassen NF
	Mendocino NF
	Modoc NF
	Shasta-Trinity NF
	Six Rivers NF

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Pacific Southwest Region
1323 Club Drive
Vallejo, CA 94592
(707)562-8737
TTY: (707)562-9130

About Us

[Photograph]: A Forest Service employee is helping some vacationers.

The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) is an integrated, comprehensive design for ecosystem management, intergovernmental and public collaboration, and rural community economic assistance for federal forests in western Oregon, Washington, and northern California. In California, the Plan directs federal land management in three ecological "provinces" described in the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on Management of Habitat for Late-Successional and Old-Growth Forest Related Species Within the Range of the northern Spotted Owl. These are the California Klamath Province, the California Coast Range Province and the California Cascade Province.

While these three northern California provinces are within the range of the northern spotted owl, most of the area is ecologically quite different than the owl's range in western Oregon and Washington. In California, 5,363,600 acres are in the hot and dry ecosystems of the Klamath and Cascades Provinces. Only the Coast Range Province, 69, 400 acres, includes the cooler, moist coastal fog belt that is more similar to northern portions of the owl's range. In total, these provinces include 5,433,000 acres on the Shasta-Trinity, Klamath, Six Rivers, and Mendocino National Forests, and portions of the Lassen and Modoc National Forests.

The NWFP recognized that in the northern California forests silvicultural treatments would be needed to accelerate the development of late-successional forests and to reduce the danger of catastrophic, stand-replacing fires in these hot, dry ecosystems.

In recent years, drought and wildfires have re-emphasized the significance of the differences in northern California ecosystems. The review of the Northwest Forest Plan in California stems partly from the Regional Forester's concern about meeting National Fire Plan goals to reduce fuels in order to protect wildlife habitats, watersheds and communities from catastrophic wildfires.

Another driving force for the review is the concern that the plan is not meeting the NWFP promises of sustainable forests and healthy communities. There is concern that old forests are not being protected from wildfire and that younger stands are not being managed to develop old forest conditions. Further driving the need for a review, is the concern that the NWFP promise of a steady supply of timber to help support the economies of local communities is not being met.