Environmental Issues in Pacific Northwest Forest Management (2000) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Region and Its Forests
2 The Region and Its Forests
Pages 27-43
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From page 27... ...
They consist of a mix of ownerships, public and private, that have been subjected to quite different management regimes (Table 2-~. A BRIEF M/STORY The current status of the forests, the forest industry, or the society of the Pacific Northwest can be understood only in the context of its history.
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From page 28... ...
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From page 29... ...
Federal public-ctomain lands acquired in the Oregon Compromise of 1846 were sold or granted to encourage settlement and development of the region. Still other lands were reserved from disposition to form national parks and national forests, and Indian reservations were established in treaties between the United States and sovereign Indian nations.
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From page 30... ...
Some of that land in forested areas was sold to timber companies, ancL some is still held by timber firms descended directly from the original companies. Those sales and other grants to railroads in the region created large regions of checkerboard ownerships, where alternate sections of private lands are intermingled with federal forest lands.
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From page 31... ...
Federal forests provided an increasing share of the region's timber harvests after World War TI as lumber and plywood production grew to meet the demand for residential construction. From 1952 to 1976, total softwood timber harvests in the region increased by 37%, but harvests from the national forests went up by 87% (USFS 1982~.
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From page 32... ...
But even without increases in timber harvests, it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a constant yield of timber from the federal forests. Shortly after the sustained-yield policy was established in law, Congress began chipping away at the potential contribution of the national forests to the timber supply, first with the Wilderness Act of 1964, and then with a series of other designations that effectively withdrew parts of the national forests from timber production (Leshy 1992~.
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From page 33... ...
Of the Pacific Northwest's total timber not formally reserved from harvest, private lands had 29%, national forests had 52%, and other public lands had 19%. DEMOGRAPHICS AND THE ECONOMY Population Growth Since 1970, the Pacific Northwest has undergone numerous dramatic changes, including economic and cultural changes and significant increases in human population.
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From page 34... ...
34 Pacific Northwest Forests Population Per Square Mile—1995 250-1,000,000 100-249 50-99 25-49 10-24 5-9 1-4 Coo FIGURE 2-~. Population in the Pacific Northwest.
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From page 35... ...
and greater demancl for nonwood forest products relative to wood products and other extractive uses of forest lands. Economic /mp/ications of Population Growth Rapid population growth has been accompanied by two significant changes in the regional economy.
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From page 36... ...
Even with changes in the regional economy, the forest products industry is an important exportbase. The region's share—more than $16 billion—of the nation's total annual value of shipments by the lumber and wood products industry is about 6 times the region's share based on indicators of demand for wood products, such as population, personal income, and value of construction contracts (U.S.
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From page 37... ...
the intersection of several vegetative zones make this possibly the most biologically diverse section of the United States (Whittaker 1960~. Gradients in species composition with elevation and aspect are particularly pronounced here, with mesic assemblages at upper elevations and on northern slopes and arid assemblages at lower elevations and on southern slopes (Whittaker 1961~.
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From page 38... ...
Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests are characteristic of the lower elevations of the eastern Cascade Mountains and intermountain ranges and extend to lower elevation grasslands and shrublands.
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From page 39... ...
Various other conifer species commonly grow with white pine, particularly shade-tolerant species, such as western red ceclar, western hemlock, grand fir, and Engelmann spruce. The grand fir zone extends along the eastern Cascade Mountains and the Blue Mountains into somewhat drier areas.
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From page 40... ...
Western hemlock, grand fir, and western red cedar communities dominate the more mesic northern portions of the region, and {odgepole pine, Douglas-fir, and ponderosa pine forests are common farther south. High-elevation forests include subalpine fir and Engelmann spruce communities, with lodgepole and whitebark pine communities also common.
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From page 41... ...
Many of these were created from forest land in national forests. Although Congress was specific in setting uses of these designated areas, it has left the allocation of land uses on the remaining national forest and the BEM holdings to the various lanctmanagement agencies.
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From page 42... ...
The mix of ownerships and purposes for which forests are managed and used in the Pacific Northwest amplifies the effects of the natural patchiness of forest landscapes. The intermingling of forests and ownerships presents a complicated situation for management of Pacific Northwest forests.
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From page 43... ...
The major challenges for forest ecosystem management in the Pacific Northwest lie less in resolving the problems of the past than in anticipating the changes of the future. Development of the Pacific Northwest during this century has relied heavily on the array of resources—timber, domestic water, salmon, and recreation—provided by federal forests.
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