Draft SNFPA Management Review and Recommendations

Introduction

More than 400 miles long, the Sierra Nevada is the longest continuous mountain range in the lower 48 states. The Sierra Nevada and the Modoc Plateau include 11.5 million acres of national forests encompassing dozens of complex ecosystems each with numerous, inter-connected social, economic and ecological components. In the 1980s the Forest Service began developing a plan for managing these complex systems at sustainable levels well into the foreseeable future. This process, still underway today, has led the Forest Service, other agencies, interest groups and the public through a lengthy series of studies reviews, revisions and refinements.

In 1989, a policy of defining and establishing Spotted Owl Habitat Areas (SOHAs) was initiated as a conservation strategy for California spotted owl habitat. By the early 1990s, California spotted owl populations were believed to be in continued decline. The Forest Service began to assess management for the northern spotted owl, and identified serious weaknesses in the SOHA strategy, which was being used for both northern and California spotted owls. A very different approach for conserving spotted owl populations began to come to light. In July 1992, the Forest Service published “The California Spotted Owl: A Technical Assessment of Its Current Status”. In January 1993 the Forest Service completed an environmental assessment (EA) that proposed adopting a set of guidelines for owl conservation based on the findings of the Technical Assessment. Also in January 1993, the Regional Forester signed a “Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the California Spotted Owl Sierran Province EA.” formally adopting these guidelines as an interim measure to protect owl habitat until a permanent strategy could be developed.

In May 1993, the Pacific Southwest Region began preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) to develop a long-term strategy, and in February 1995 a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) was released. During review of the DEIS, additional information was identified and was reflected in a 1996 Revised DEIS. In May 1997, the Secretary of Agriculture chartered a federal advisory committee (FAC) to review the Revised DEIS. The FAC, in its December 1997 report, was critical of the Revised DEIS, concluding that it was insufficient as either an owl habitat management plan or a broader ecosystem management plan. This report was part of an ongoing shift from a single-species approach to one that encompassed a broader view of the Sierra Nevada ecosystem.

Shortly after the FAC was convened, the US Senate Subcommittee on Forest and Public Land Management and the House subcommittee on Forests formed the California Forest EIS Review Committee to evaluate the Revised DEIS. In May 1998 the California Forest EIS Review Committee released its findings that the Revised DEIS was scientifically sound and complete.

Early in 1998 the Chief of the Forest Service directed the Pacific Southwest Region to consider the recommendations of the FAC and especially the information in the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (SNEP) report and to develop an ecosystem strategy to conserve the California spotted owl, old forests and other forest resources. The SNEP report, published between June 1996 and March 1997, was authorized by Congress in 1993 to scientifically review the entire Sierra Nevada ecosystem and assemble the comprehensive data necessary for policy decisions.

After informal discussions among state and federal agencies, the Forest Service began a new EIS process in the summer of 1998. In September 1998, after more than 30 community meetings in towns throughout the Sierra Nevada, the Forest Service convened a statewide gathering of citizens to encourage a dialogue and sharing of ideas about how best to sustain Sierra Nevada ecosystems and communities. In May 2000, a DEIS was released, and on January 12, 2001 a final EIS and Record of Decision (ROD) was released.

Partway through this process, in August 1999, forest supervisors of the Lassen, Plumas and Tahoe national forests signed a Record of Decision for the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery Act’s Final EIS project. The decision was designed to protect wildlife and associated old growth forests, reduce wildfire risk and provide economic opportunities for local communities.

Reason for Review

On November 16, 2001, the Chief of the Forest Service completed his review of more than 200 appeals of the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment (SNFPA). This was the largest number of appeals ever received on a forest plan amendment. The Chief affirmed the SNFPA ROD, but directed the Pacific Southwest Region to review certain elements of the ROD and associated EIS, and several other concerns raised in the appeals.

The Chief's appeal decision was subject to discretionary review by the Secretary of Agriculture, and on December 26, 2001 the Under Secretary returned the SNFPA to the Forest Service with his decision not to conduct a discretionary review. The Under Secretary expressed his confidence that the Regional Forester would develop an aggressive plan to respond to the Chief's appeal decision with an open, cooperative review of the SNFPA.

The Pacific Southwest Regional Forester chartered the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment Review Team (Team) to evaluate the SNFPA ROD for any needed changes relative to six specific areas. The Regional Forester provided further direction for the review in a December 31, 2001 memo and action plan directing the Team to use an open and public process to identify opportunities to:

1. Pursue more aggressive fuels treatments while still protecting old forest conditions and species at risk.
2. Achieve consistency with the National Fire Plan to insure goals of community protection and forest health are accomplished.
3. Harmonize the decision with HFQLG Forest Recovery Act to implement the Pilot Project to the fullest extent possible.
4. Reduce the unintended and adverse impacts on grazing permit holders.
5. Reduce the unintended and adverse impacts on recreation users and permit holders.
6. Reduce the unintended and adverse impacts on local communities.

The Review Team reviewed the SNFPA EIS and supporting documents and gathered information about each focus area to identify specific issues that needed to be addressed. To help identify important issues, the Review Team solicited input from forests currently implementing the SNFPA and former members of the SNFPA interdisciplinary team, held meetings with interest groups, sponsored field trips, and reviewed the work of the Regional Office SNFPA Implementation Team. The Team also reviewed the appeals and the Chief’s appeals decision.

A comprehensive list of issues by focus area was then sent to interested parties for review before it was finalized (Appendix A). At the end of this exercise, the Team had a list of the concerns others had with the SNFPA. The next step was to further investigate those concerns and determine if changes could be made to improve the decision.

USDA Forest Service · Pacific Southwest Region