Walters K FEMC2007

Management of Timber Under a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) in the Pacific Northwest

Karl Walters, FORSight Resources LLC, 3813 H Street, Vancouver, WA, 98663-2365, USA, Karl.Walters@FORSightResources.com
Gene McCaul, West Fork Timber Company, LLC, 3819 100th St SW, Suite 5B, Lakewood, WA, 9849, USA, gmccaul@murraypacific.com

West Fork Timber Company (WFTC) is a private timber company that manages approximately 55,000 acres on the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains. West Fork's goal was to develop a long-term harvest plan that would improve asset value over time, while simultaneously ensuring that habitat requirements set forth in their Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) would be realized. The primary constraint set forth in the HCP is the maintenance of a unique Dispersal Landscape Index (DLI) within a narrow (+/- 5%) range of pre-determined levels for the life of the HCP. The DLI is derived by assigning different values to areas within specific distances of existing dispersal habitat (DH) in a complex formula; the dispersal habitat (DH) values are then summed and divided by the total number of acres in the forest to arrive at a DLI value for the ownership. This paper discusses DLI calculation and the challenges involved in modeling this problem, including the types of constraints needed in the strategic model, the spatial allocation of activities associated with existing and future stands in a Model II framework, and the development of a rapid DLI calculator to facilitate the evaluation of alternatives. Overall, West Fork was able to meet objective of higher returns from the forest while simultaneously demonstrating improvement in dispersal habitat over the next four decades.