The Northwest Forest Plan is being updated! Conservation Northwest is encouraging conservationists to comment on the amendment, in support of additional aid to old-growth forests and watersheds.

Here's their message:

March 11

Speak up today on Northwest Forest Plan updates to prepare for a changing climate

Dear Conservationist,

After 30 years, the Northwest Forest Plan (NFP) is being updated! Spanning 24 million acres across Washington, Oregon, and California, the NFP is the world’s first ecosystem management plan, setting out to protect and restore fish and wildlife habitat and support local communities.

Overall, we’re on track, but climate change amplifies fire, drought, and flood events, and we must adjust. We also must include Indigenous knowledge and co-management actions and practices in the NFP that uphold tribal treaty rights.

In Washington, the NFP covers the North Cascades, Washington’s South Cascades, and the Olympics, all places we know and love. It is home to magnificent creatures like grizzly bear, wolf, wolverine, fisher, Cascade red fox, spotted owl and marbled murrelet, and a wonderous array of unique amphibians, mollusks, bats, fungi, mosses, lichens, small mammals, and many others. Its ancient forest ecosystems provide globally unmatched carbon storage, crucial for mitigating climate change impacts.

The proposed NFP amendment is generally a step forward in protecting old-growth forests and trees, restoring fire to the landscape, and improving the ecological resilience of dry fire-prone forests. It also directs the Forest Service to incorporate Indigenous Knowledge in decision-making and expand co-stewardship opportunities to address Tribal cultural needs better.

But the NFP amendment needs improvement in five key areas to meet its goals: The proposed action, Alternative B, must be modified to add or incorporate standards and guidelines to recruit mature trees better to restore old-growth, burn more dry forests, improve habitat connectivity, protect aquatic ecosystems, and restore old forests in Reserves. 

The Forest Service is accepting public comments through March 17 on the proposed amendment. Your voice is needed to shape the future of national forests. Please submit your comment today. 

Submit Comments Here!

Please feel free to use our sample letter:

Dear Ms. Jacque Buchanan, Regional Forester:

I’m writing to comment on the Forest Service’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a proposed Northwest Forest Plan (NFP) amendment. I strongly support the NFP’s regional approach to ensure the viability of fish and wildlife associated with ancient forest ecosystems and to support local communities. In recognition of climate change, I support a modified Alternative B (B+) to better recruit old forests, burn dry forests, improve habitat connectivity, protect aquatic ecosystems, and restore old forests in Reserves.

Forests of the Cascades and Olympics are vital to our region, providing excellent water quality, crucial climate resilience, marvelous biological diversity, inspiring places for contemplation and recreation, and job opportunities. Since 1994, the NFP has improved watershed conditions and reduced threats to ancient forests and their inhabitants, including many very rare, unique species that occur only in the Pacific Northwest.

The proposed NFP amendment is a big step forward in protecting old-growth forests and trees, restoring fire to the landscape, and improving ecological resilience of dry fire-prone forests. It also provides valuable direction to incorporate Indigenous Knowledge in decision-making and expand co-stewardship opportunities to better address Tribal cultural needs, achieve forest management goals, and meet indigenous treaty and trust responsibilities.

However, the proposed amendment needs improvement in five key areas. Please amend the proposed action with standards and guidelines that:

• Promote old-growth recovery in dry forests by recruiting enough trees from the largest and oldest size class during stewardship actions to restore old-growth distribution and abundance on the landscape. Older and larger trees are inordinately important for storing carbon, supporting biological diversity, and resisting stress from fire, drought, and other disturbances.  

• Prioritize for ecological restoration of previously logged areas in wetter forests, especially in 80-120-year-old stands. Old plantations with homogenous structure and composition will benefit the most from actions that enhance structural complexity and other late-successional characteristics.  

• Reduce road density to improve wildlife habitat connectivity and reduce aquatic impacts from climate-induced flood events. Reduce road density to 1 mile road/mile2 in key watersheds and to 2 miles of road/mile2 outside key watersheds and hydrologically decouple roads from water resources in all land allocations. Maintain the habitat connectivity emphasis in the Snoqualmie Pass Adaptive Management Area. 

• Maximize wildland fire and indigenous cultural burning to restore ecologically appropriate fire activity and behavior across drier forest landscapes, and incorporate Indigenous cultural burning practices more broadly. Adopt plan components that support Tribes' co-management and co-stewardship informed by indigenous knowledge, access to cultural and religious sites, indigenous hunting and gathering on national forests, and other issues of interest to Tribes. 

• Remove guideline 1(b) from FORSTW-LSR-GDL for creating young forest in Late-Successional Reserves. Natural disturbances are expected to continue to create suitable amounts of complex early successional forest habitat in Reserves and this guideline is unneeded.

Thank you for this opportunity to provide comments on the Forest Service's proposed amendment to the Northwest Forest Plan.

Sincerely,

(Your Name)