Forest Service Announces Northwest Forest Plan Advisory Committee

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The U.S. Forest Service recently announced a plan to form a new federal advisory board to provide input on the Northwest Forest Plan, which covers Northern California, Oregon and Washington.

For stakeholders in Southwest Washington’s Gifford Pinchot National Forest, the move means more opportunity for climate-focused advocacy and participation in forest management practices during a time when sustainability and wildfire resilience are more important than ever. 

Nominations are being accepted through mid-January, according to a news release from the Forest Service.

The group will include 20 members who meet about four times annually for two years.

They will represent the diversity across the three states covered by the plan and include experts in the science community, organizations with an interest in these forests, plus government, tribal and public groups, according to the news release.

The announcement was called a “step forward” by the Cascade Forest Conservancy, which is a Vancouver-based nonprofit that focuses much of its work on the Gifford Pinchot.

“The (Northwest Forest Plan) was enacted during a period of intense national debate surrounding logging in old-growth forests and other unsustainable land management practices in the Pacific Northwest. It was the world’s first policy establishing a science-based, ecosystem-focused land management plan and remains the largest, affecting an area of more than 19 million acres of national forests in Washington, Oregon and northern California,” read a statement from the Cascade Forest Conservancy. “The committee’s recommendations will become the basis for the first significant updates to the (plan) in nearly three decades.”

Likewise, the Pinchot Partners, a Cowlitz Valley-based collective, called the advisory board extremely important. As a group built on representing the variety of interests that rely on the forest, the service’s goal to create a similar coalition represented a positive step, according to Pinchot Partners Executive Director Janene Ritchie.

“We have a vested interest in the process and outcome of this new federal advisory committee,” Ritchie said. “Advisory committees and forest collaboratives such as Pinchot Partners bring together people with diverse perspectives, which is a good thing. Working together, we can address the critical issues that affect all of us.”

Like the Cascade Forest Conservancy, the Pinchot Partners said the Northwest Forest Plan is in need of an update to effectively promote sustainable forestry, climate change adaptations and wildfire resilience while successfully meeting timber targets. 



“We hope that this advisory committee will indeed ensure that the future management direction of the (plan) makes sense for forests like ours within the region,” Ritchie said.

The Forest Service stated the new committee will advise on the following topics, plus additional requests from the Secretary of Agriculture or the Chief of the Forest Service:

• Planning options to complement the Wildfire Crisis Strategy, to assist the Forest Service in proactive wildfire risk reduction and obstacles in vegetation management.

• Ways to address dynamic ecosystems with adaptive management, monitoring and future uncertainty.

• Integrating indigenous traditional ecological knowledge, perspectives, and values into federal forest planning and management.

• Feedback on how to protect and promote conservation of mature, old-growth forest while ensuring national forests are resilient to high-severity wildfire, insects, disease and other disturbances worsened by the climate crisis.

• Preliminary recommendations in line with Forest Service Northwest Forest Plan timelines.

To be considered for the committee, submit application packets by Jan. 17. Include a cover letter, resume, references and form AD-755. It can be emailed to sm.fs.NWFP_FACA@usda.gov. Put “FACA Nomination” in the subject line. If mailing, send to: Regional Forester Glenn Casamassa, c/o NWFP FACA Team, 1220 SW Third Ave., Portland, Oregon, 97204.

For more information, visit the Forest Service’s Northwest Forest Plan page or the committee page.

For questions, contact Mark Brown at 971-712-4369, Nick Goldstein at 503-347-1765, or email sm.fs.NWFP_FACA@usda.gov. Individuals using devices for the deaf may call 800-877-8339, between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.