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1
THE PROMISED LAND:
THE LAND OF PROM/SE
/NTRODUCT/ON
In his 1938 dust-bowI-era treatise, Richard L. Neuberger described the
Pacific Northwest as "the promised land," and certainly the region has
appeared to waves of immigrants as a land of great bounty and promise.
The pioneers who followed the Oregon Trail were attracted by the
wealth of natural resources and the opportunity for a new future.
Compared with the exhausted fields and eroded soils of the Midwest,
the immigrants of the crust-bow! era found unexploited forest resources
in the Pacific Northwest and abundant hydroelectric power that macLe
new technologies and industries practical.
Humans depend on natural and managed ecosystems to provide a
variety of commodities and amenities. By exploiting resources, each
wave of migrants to the Pacific Northwest significantly altered the
landscape and, in cloing so, increased its capacity to deliver some goods
and services while diminishing its potential to deliver others.
The lures to migrants moving to this region in the past three decades
included economic opportunity associated with the urbanization and
industrialization of major transportation corridors, such as along the
interstate highway from Portland to Seattle. For migrants in recent
times, the proximity of natural ecosystems to zones of economic
development provided additional attractions, such as clean air and
water, abundant recreation, and escape from population centers.
It is doubtful that many migrants would have consciously advocated
practices that would have denied their children or grandchildren the
75
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Pacific Northwest Forests
opportunities they themselves enjoyed. But little attention was paid to
whether the region could indefinitely meet society's demands for its
commodities and amenities. Now the optimism of the past has waned,
replaced by a pessimism that pits individuals and groups with differing
resource wants and needs against one another. The resulting conflicts
have exposed the inadequacy of the protocols and institutions neecLed
to resolve disputes across complex boundaries of environments,
jurisdictions, ownerships, and cultures.
What changed since Neuberger's optimistic depiction of this region?
Three general trends—the loss of the frontier, a changing knowledge
base, and changing societal values—are important.
Loss of the Frontier
Nineteenth century romantic writers depicted the frontier as a cornuco-
pia of wealth and resources (Nash 1982~. But that frontier is gone. And
despite c~windling resources, demand for the goocts and services they
produce has increased. But satisfying demands for some resources can
conflict or compete with the ability to meet the demands for others. The
conflict is not usually jobs versus the environment. Typically ancE
increasingly, conflicts are among types of jobs, for example, when
[Logging reduces employment in fishing by altering aquatic habitats,
thereby contributing to the decline of salmon stocks, or when environ-
mental effects dilute amenities that attract other industries, jobs, and
workers.
Changing Know/edge Base
As the science of ecology has maturect, so has our understanding of the
consequences of various human activities on the landscape. Although
ecologists have been aware of the relationships between spatial scale
and number of species for nearly a century, the connection between that
relationship and the loss of species as landscapes become fragmented
into smaller, disconnected pieces of habitat has only been recognized in
the past two decades (Wilson 1992~. Such factors as the variability
among species in the breadth of habitat requirements and the complex-
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The Promised Land: The Land of Promise
77
ity of the landscape mosaic (e.g., extremes of fragmentation and the
character of the disturbed landscape matrix), make quantitative
predictions regarding species loss and habitat fragmentation difficult
(RocheHe et al. 1999~.
Our knowledge base at any given time is provisional and subject to
change. In the early 1900s, selective cutting and high-grading were
typical forestry practices; later, foresters shifted to clear-cutting.
Technological advances and changing markets that permitted economic
use of a greater array of species and tree sizes also contributed to this
shift. By the 1960s, the first comprehensive studies demonstrating the
negative effects of large clear cuts on watershed hydrology and nutrient
cycling were completed. The importance of dead woody debris to the
functioning of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in the Pacific North-
west has been made clear (Harmon et al. 1986; Perry 1998; Aber et al.
2000~.
Almost certainly some components of what is considered today to be
best practice will be found to be erroneous. However, the time between
the acquisition of new knowledge and understanding and their
incorporation into natural-resource management often is measured in
decades. Public expectations that decision makers and resource
managers understand the resources they manage can make it difficult
to actmit that much management is necessarily experimental and to
establish the institutional structures and monitoring systems needed to
learn from experiments. Value-laden distinctions between basic and
applied research also create barriers to the application of new knowI-
edge.
Changing Socia/ Values
Demand for wood fiber and its derivative products has increased nearly
twofold since 1950 and is projected to double again early in the next
decade (NRC 1998~. At the same time, public interest in sustainability
and ecological consequences of some forest-management practices has
grown. Population growth and changing societal values have increased
interest in and demand for parks, wilderness, and recreation. An ever-
increasing variety of forest organisms have become important, including
herbs, wild plant foods, and mushrooms. Stocks of anadromous fishes
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Pacific Northwest Forests
(such as salmon) that spend critical portions of their lives in forest
streams have declined, and public concern has been expressed over the
quality and delivery of water, landscape appearance, potential loss of
indigenous species, and fragmentation of forests. Legislation such as
the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, as well as state
regulations, have changed forest management.
This committee identified four general goals or expectations that
society has for forested landscapes:
· Sustain viable populations of indigenous species
· Maintain properly functioning ecological processes
· Meet human needs for forest commodities
· Satisfy cultural and aesthetic values
The relative importance of each of these goals has changed consider-
ably over the past several decades. Forest management in the Pacific
Northwest on public and private lands has been aimed primarily at
meeting human needs for commodities, particularly wood products.
Early in this century, the time horizon for management decisions was
relatively short, but it has gradually expanded with increased emphasis
on the need for sustained yield to encompass meeting needs for wood
products over many years. Management goals gradually shifted,
especially on public lands, to encompass new needs, including provid-
ing wildlife habitat, protecting water quality, and meeting aesthetic
concerns. Sustainable populations of indigenous species have become
a major goal in the context of the Endangered Species Act, especially on
public lands. Today, more attention is being focused on sustaining
ecological processes, a goal that was not fully visualized in historic
models for sustained yield of wood fiber (SAF 1993~.
Maintaining natural pro-
cesses and integrity has been
recognized by the National
Research Council as a key
element in "a transition to-
ward sustainability." Accomplishing this transition as a worldwide goal
requires integrating global and local perspectives in "place-based
understanding of the interactions of the interactions between environ-
ment and society" (NRC ~ 999a). This report focuses on one such place-
or reg~on-based understanding and the information needed for it.
Forest-management decisions
and/ actions are made at a
variety of spa tia/ sea/es.
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The Promised Land: The Land of Promise
79
Forest-management decisions and actions are made at a variety of
spatial scales. Typically, forest-management decisions focus et the stand
or site scale (measured in acres or hectares) and on such issues as the
size of a cut or specific harvest practices like clear cutting. Increasingly,
management is concerned with landscape and watershed issues such as
the relationship among management patches and the connections
between them, or the accumulated consequences of multiple activities
within a watershed. And many critical decisions and actions, such as
the management of animals that migrate over large distances or
management decisions that influence patterns of human development
or extensive accumulation of flammable fuels, are taken or have
significant consequences at the scale of regions (for example, entire
states or subregions, such as the Eastside or Westside).
A recurring theme in Pacific Northwest forest management is that
reasonable goals set or actions taken at one spatial scale can have
unfavorable consequences at another scale. Best-management practices
can be applied at the scale of individual stands, but if attention is not
paid to the spatial arrangement among stands, such practices might
have negative effects on the hydrological flows in watersheds or on
populations of wide-ranging wildlife species. Such spatial mismatches
have analogues in the temporal dimension; e.g., reasonable management
decisions from the standpoint of a fiscal year or electoral cycle can
diminishiong-term capacity and sustainability. If there is one overarch-
sing lesson from the current management dilemmas, it is that mecha-
n~sms and institutions are needed to reconcile management goals and
actions over scales of space and time.
More people want more things from forests, and societal priorities
with regard to the variety of goods and services provided by forest
ecosystems have clearly shifted. A few people were concerned about
the loss of species from forests 50 years ago, but only recently has
worldwide loss of biodiversity has become a mainstream public concern.
The ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest have become a major
symbol of that concern. People across the country who might never visit
an old-growth, Douglas-fir forest have lobbied policy makers and
provided financial support to various nongovernmental organizations,
thereby becoming important stakeholders in decisions affecting the fate
of those forests.
So far, existing institutions and attempts at conflict resolution have
failed to achieve a common societal vision for the Pacific Northwest.
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Pacific Northwest Forests
People's wants and needs often exceed the ability of ecosystems to meet
them, and this remains the most significant challenge to achieving a
workable vision. Borders and patterns of human ownership and
jurisdiction cLo not generally correspond with the spatial scales and
boundaries Mat define integrated hydrologic systems or the behavior of
wildlife and wildfire. Society's desires for particular outcomes at
landscape, regional, ancE even national and international scales often
conflict with individual wishes to achieve certain benefits at local scales
or established rights to the use of personal property. Time scales of fiscal
years and JO-year management plans often drive management deci-
sions, whereas ecosystem processes that sustain the supply of goods and
services operate over many decades and centuries. Consequently, the
results of actions and practices often clo not become evident until long
after they are applied.
The future of the Pacific Northwest is uncertain given the numerous
debates and proposed adjustments in forest management, but the
outlook is positive. Although concerns about unsustainable patterns of
land use and forest fragmentation are real and legitimate, more
significant expanses of relatively undisturbed forest and wilderness
remain than in other regions of the United States. Past forest manage-
ment has created threats to the well being of some timberianc3 s, but most
of the Pacific Northwest second-growth forest remains productive.
Furthermore, management practices continue to improve, and new
technologies and protocols are being implemented that promise to
diminish the adverse effects of extractive practices. important elements
of the rich biodiversity of the Pacific Northwest, inclucLing some of
considerable econ-
. .
Omlc value, are m-
deed threatened.
However, opportuni-
ties exist for recovery
of populations and
restoration of habitat.
The future of the Pacific Northwest
is uncertain given the numerous
debates and proposed adjustments
in forest management, but the
outlook is positive.
Some timber-dependent communities have suffered economically as
the flow of old-growth timber has been curtailed, but the Pacific
Northwest economy is, on the whole, vibrant. Most small rural
communities have made transitions to a diversified economic base and
are beneficing from the overall well being of the region, although
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The Promised Land: The Land of Promise
27
important segments of the region's rural population endure hardship
and substandard living conditions.
The vast expanses of federal land in Me Pacific Northwest provide
opportunities for landscape management and old-growth forest
preservation that might not be available in other regions of the country,
but Nose opportunities can be realized only if management practices on
nonfederal lands are also taken into account. An integrated reg~onwide
approach to forest management that recognizes the opportunities for
resource use across the spectrum of ownerships should provide the
potential for true win-win outcomes. However, few institutions or
structures exist to plan for or effect decisions on those scales.
Forest products enter common economic markets, whether the
products are extracted from public or private lands or whether Hey
come from the Pacific Northwest, other regions of the United States, or
other countries. Decisions that influence supply from one ownership or
region necessarily influence management decisions of others. If
sustainable provision of the functions, goods, and services provided by
our forested landscapes is to be achieved, consideration should be given
to coordination across local, regional, and global scales. Given the
growth of human populations, as well as increased global per capita
consumption, there is little doubt that worldwide demand for wood and
wood fiber will continue to increase. Through its actions and policies,
the United States has an opportunity to encourage and set an example
for sustainable forest ecosystem management for the rest of the world.
it is still rational to view the Pacific Northwest as a land of promise,
but the region's ecosystems can deliver the goods, services, and
amenities on which humans depend only if people fulfill their collective
responsibility for wise stewardship. This requires seeing forest land-
scapes and resources more as a trust held for our children than as
expendable resources inherited from our ancestors.
THE STUDY AREA
To address the conflicts in and problems symbolized by the Pacific
Northwest, Congress asked the National Research Council to review
forest-management practices, examine old-growth forest issues, and
identify He current status of knowledge. The NRC convened the
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Pacific Northwest Forests
Committee on Environmental Issues in Pacific Northwest Forest
Management; this reportis the culmination of that group's deliberations.
The committee defied the Pacific Northwest as the states of Oregon,
Washington, and Idaho, the northern part of California, and Montana
west of the crest of the Rocky Mountains (Figure 1-~. This region
includes the major forested ecoregions of the three Northwest states and
their extensions into northern California and Montana. Boundaries were
delineated as follows: the entire states of Oregon and Washington, the
U.S. portion of the Columbia River drainage basin (which contains
salmon habitat), the Klamath and northern coastal regions of northern
California (because they are an extension of the ecoregion of southern
Oregon and contain part of the northern spotted owl habitat and
salmon habitat). Because not all data sources use the same geographic
base, the exact borders of the region used for particular analyses and
comparisons vary throughout the report. For example, the demographic
analyses may use different counties than those used in reports of timber
products. in most cases, the variations are minor and did not influence
overall conclusions.
For some discussions, the committee further divided the Pacific
Northwest into three geographic subregions that reflect the major
ecoregions in the Pacific Northwest: Eastside, Westside, and Northern
Rocky Mountains. The division into subregions follows standard
practice in the forestry literature and in the way in which the U.S. Forest
Service collects and publishes forest resources data. The Westside is the
high precipitation area west of the Cascade crest from the Canadian
Border south to northern California. The much drier Eastside extends
from the Cascade crest east through eastern Washington and Oregon
and central Idaho. Forest conditions, including species composition,
between the Westside and Eastside differ substantially. The northern
Rocky Mountain area of northern Idaho and western Montana has
higher precipitation than the Eastside, has a more continental climate,
and has different species composition of the forests from that of the
other regions.
OTHER MAJOR STUD/ES AND REPORTS
Most of the many studies and reports that have addressed various
aspects of Pacific Northwest forest management dealt with
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23
FIGURE 1-1. The Pacific Northwest.
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Pacific Northwest Forests
forest-management issues on the Westside. A series of reports in the
1960s and 1970s focused on the region's timber supply situation USES
1963, 1969, 1976; Beuter et al. 1976~. A major concern was whether
federal timber harvests could be increased during the last decade of this
century and the first couple of decades of the next while private forests
that had been logged grew back to regain their place as the main source
of the regions timber.
In the 19SOs, attention turned to habitat protection, notably protection
of the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), a threatened
species that depends primarily on old-growth forests. Then attention
expanded to protection of other species, including the marbled murrelet
(Brachyramphus marmoratus marmoratus), a seabird that nests in old-
growth forests, and several salmon stocks. Concern with the loss of old-
growth habitat prompted a new series of studies.
The federal Interagency Scientific Committee (ISC) was the first of
several important and innovative scientific efforts to bring economic and
ecological stability to the Pacific Northwest. TSC members, appointed
by the chief of the Forest Service, proposed in 1990 that large reserve
blocks on federal forests capable of supporting 20 or more pairs of
spotted owls replace the previous strategy of protecting spotted owl
habitat areas around each nesting pair of owls. The ISC recommended
habitat conservation areas (HCAs) for spotted owls and that timber
harvesting be prohibited in HCAs. In response to court decisions that
stood in the way of effecting this proposal, a congressional committee
appointed the Scientific Pane] on Late-Successional Forest Ecosystems
to examine a range of alternatives Johnson et al. 1991~. It reported that
adequate protection of species partly dependent on old-growth forests,
especially fish such as salmon, would require a greater degree of
protection than was proposed in the Forest Service plan.
With the issue of habitat protection still unresolved, the Forest Service
chartered another study by the Scientific Analysis Team (SAT 1993~.
That group recommended that habitat conservation areas be combined
with riparian protection zones to protect old-growth dependent species
and aquatic species.
After an April 1993 forest conference in Portland, Oregon, President
Clinton created the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Team
(FEMAT) to develop and analyze several options, all of which included
extensive reserve systems. Those options were to be scientifically
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The Promised Land: The Land of Promise
25
credible and legal, with minimal negative social impacts. The president
announced his choice of "Option 9" on July I, 1993, and this was
followecE by an environmental impact statement with a revised Option
9, known as the Northwest Forest Plan (NFP), which was adopted in
February 1994. The NFP required protection of late-successional old-
growth reserves and riparian reserves on federal land. It aDowed some
silvicultural activities in the reserves, extended timber rotation ages to
180 years on nonreserved federal land in California, required buffer
zones to protect the marbled murrelet, and provided for increasing the
amount of coarse woody debris and green trees left following logging
on nonreserved areas. One effect of the NFP reserves is to reduce the
probable timber harvest on federal "owl forests" to about a quarter of
what it was during the 1980s. The NFP also includes a controversial
"survey and manage" provision that requires extensive surveys of plant
and animal species potentially affected by timber harvest. The NFP
allows silivicultural activity in stands less than 80 years of age that are
in late-successional reserves, if the activity is designed to accelerate the
development of late-successional forest conditions. A substantial
portion of the timber harvest since adoption of the plan has come from
the late-successional reserves. The NFP was accepted by the responsible
federal district court in December 1994 as meeting legal requirements.
Even as the process leading to the NFP, which dealt primarily with
Westside forests, was moving along, attention was also being directed
at somewhat parallel concerns on the Eastside. In response to a
congressional request, the Forest Service produced a report, Eastside
Forest Ecosystem Health Assessment (USES 1993a). A more recent report
addresses issues of fisheries management for anadromous fish through-
out the Pacific Northwest, Eastside, and Westside (PACFISH 1994~.
Neither report has fed to actions similar to the adoption of NFP, but the
concerns broadly parallel those addressed by FEMAT.
Since FEMAT and the Eastside Assessment, much attention has been
given to the health of Pacific Northwest forests, particularly with respect
to the impacts of past fire suppression and the possible benefits of
timber harvest as a surrogate for natural disturbance. Oliver et al. (1997)
argued that forest harvesting should be increased in many regions,
including the Pacific Northwest, in order to reduce fuel Toads and the
danger of catastrophic fires. Others (SNEP 1996a, b; Aber et al. 2000)
argued that fuel accumulations owing to fire suppression have been
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Pacific Northwest Forests
overstated In many areas and warned that harvest activities are often a
poor substitute for natural disturbances such as fire and windthrow.
In 199S, the National Research Council Committee on Prospects and
Opportunities for Sustainable Management of America's Nonfederal
Forests (NRC 1998) outlined strategies to improve the health of forest
ecosystems on private land and improve the incentives to private land
owners for sustainable management. The Committee of Scientists
Report (1999), written by a committee of non-Forest Service scientists
appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to review the current
regulations for land-use planning on the national forests, emphasized
the importance of ecological sustainability and public participation in
the management of national forests.
THIS REPORT
This report describes the Pacific Northwest and its forests (Chapter 2~;
presents information on the status of the regon's biological and
hydrological resources (Chapters 3 and 4~; examines the various
definitions of old-growth forests (Chapter 5~; reviews the way in which
changes in the use of forest products from the region affect supplies
from other regions of the country and the world (Chapter 6~; presents
information on the effects of forest management on human communities
in the region (Chapter 7~; and reviews forest management practices in
the region, their effects, and alternative management approaches
(Chapter S). The final chapter summarizes the committee's conclusions
and presents its recommendations (Chapter 9~.
Clear goals are essential to any effort to rationalize forest manage-
ment in the Pacific Northwest. The four goals formulated by the
committee are at the heart of the issues in forest management in this
region (see page 18 and Chapter S). Those goals provide the general
framework and helped to clarify the kinds of issues that are involved in
Pacific Northwest forest management. But conflicts arise among them
because they cannot alibe maximized or optimized simultaneously. The
citizens of the region and the country must decide what weights should
be assigned to each of these goals.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
northwest forests
