Long-roosting forest plan ready to fly

The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest said it will finalize and release the long-awaited revision of its governing plan Friday.

For more than two decades, Forest Service employees have been working on updating the document known as a forest plan. It was written in 1987 and designed to last about 15 years. Over that time the agency has started, scrapped and restarted the effort several times, often based on shifting federal rules governing the process.

A final draft of the plan was released in the fall of 2023. While the finalized plan won’t be available until Friday, it is not expected to be dramatically different from the draft.

Forest plans set parameters around how individual forests are managed. They don’t propose specific actions like timber sales or restoration projects. They do set goals and objectives for things like timber harvest, recreation, wildfire threat reduction and conservation.

The draft plan for the 4-million-acre forest set an annual timber sale objective of 190 million to 210 million board feet. It aims to treat 65,000 acres annually with prescribed fire and logging in an effort to lessen the threat and impact of large and destructive wildfires. It recommends 263,000 acres for wilderness designation.

The agency estimates the work will support 4,000 jobs and provide $163 million in labor income.

When it was released, the draft had plenty of critics, ranging from Idaho County commissioners to conservation groups. Idaho County Commissioner Skip Brandt was critical of the draft plan because it included an additional area to be recommended for wilderness designation, making it off-limits to logging and efforts to reduce fire danger. But he was pleased the agency dropped the South Fork of the Clearwater from consideration for Wild and Scenic River designation.

Conservation groups panned the draft plan because it dramatically reduced streams and rivers that would be recommended for protection under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers act from more than 80 to just 11; it split the recommended designation of the Great Burn area as wilderness into to parcels by allowing snowmobiles and mountain bikes in some spots; and it set a timber harvest target that could lead to logging levels not seen in decades.

“It’s status quo management prioritizing extractive industries and false solutions to false problems like the wildfire emergency by more logging,” said Jeff Juel of the Friends of the Clearwater.

Brad Smith of the Idaho Conservation League said the draft plan represents a threat to imperiled wildlife species.

“This plan will harm species like wolverine, mountain goats and grizzly bears by expanding motorized use into habitats that are critical for their survival like the Great Burn roadless area.”

Smith, Juel and Brandt all said they don’t expect the final plan will be much different than the draft but are reserving judgment until they can read and digest the document.

“This process has been going on for so long that it’s blurred,” Brandt said. “There have been so many drafts and so many things we have dealt with, I’m waiting to see the final.”

The plan will be posted at bit.ly/407SzLh.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com.