Since 1994, the Northwest Forest Plan has been providing protections for millions of acres of old-growth forests, imperiled spotted owls, hundreds of rare species, and wild salmon on federal lands in Washington, Oregon, and California. Without the Plan’s protections, all old-growth forests, aside from remote areas, would likely have been destroyed sometime this decade by unsustainable logging. This is why hundreds of scientists and conservation groups have worked hard to uphold the protections afforded these forests for over two decades.

The Forest Service recently began a science synthesis/review of the Northwest Forest Plan. Geos Institute submitted extensive science comments on behalf of conservation groups that includes dozens of our peer reviewed science in the region.

We are recommending that the Forest Service increase protections for old forests and watersheds in the region given forests and rivers face the double whammy of climate change and increasing land-use pressures. Without stepped up conservation, the benefits we get from the Northwest Forest Plan in clean water, climate regulation, wildlife habitat, and recreation will be degraded for future generations.

Streams like the one pictured here receive protections under the Northwest Forest Plan’s Aquatic Conservation Strategy (Photo: D. DellaSala)

Resources and Reports

• The Northwest Forest Plan: Still the Best Science of the Day (April 2015 Report by Geos Institute)
• Building on Two Decades of Ecosystem Management and Biodiversity Conservation under the Northwest Forest Plan (2015 Forests Article)

Download the comments

• Peer Review Letter to the Forest Service
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Climate, Disturbance, and Vulnerability to Vegetation Change in the Northwest Forest Plan area
• Chapter 3: Old Growth, Disturbance, Forest Succession
• Chapter 4: Spotted Owls
• Chapter 6: Other Species and Biodiversity
• Chapter 8: Socio-economic well-being and forest management in Northwest Forest Plan Area Communities
• Chapter 12: Science that Underlies the Northwest Forest Plan