_{Thumbnail: A rain-swollen Smith River in the Smith River National Recreation Area, which is one of the U.S. Forest Service units addressed in its Northwest Forest Plan. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews}

District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard used an example from the 1960s to highlight the importance of local input into an amended Northwest Forest Plan.

Del Norte County housed 52 manufacturing mills six decades ago, he said, now there are none. Howard blamed their collapse on the Northwest Forest Plan, which was created in 1994. Now, with a public comment deadline approaching on an amended plan, Howard urged his colleagues to weigh in on a letter to the U.S. Forest Service, the agency spearheading the process.

Tacked onto Tuesday’s agenda at the last minute due to the Monday public comment deadline, the county’s letter was unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors.

“You can’t just turn off that pipeline of manufacturing and expect a county that’s as poor as we are, that relied on the commercial fishing industry and the timber industry, to all of a sudden recover without the cashflow that supports real wage jobs within our community,” Howard said. “I know there is a lot of willingness within Congress to have this conversation right now, especially in reopening our public lands to sustainable harvest, which the Northwest Forest Plan focuses on.”

Howard pointed out that more than 70 percent of land in Del Norte County is within the Smith River National Recreation Area and is impacted by the Northwest Forest Plan. He pointed out that he talks about the amended plan in his Board reports regularly and that participating in the public comment period as the updated plan is developed was part of the county’s 2025 legislative platform.

The Northwest Forest Plan encompasses 24 million acres, 17 national forests and other federal lands in Washington, Oregon and northwestern California. It was created to protect threatened and endangered species. Howard said it was driven by “single-species management, more specifically the northern spotted owl.”

According to the executive summary in a draft environmental impact statement for the amended forest plan, social and ecological conditions have changed since it was first released 30 years ago. These changes include the proliferation of large wildfires, the loss of mature and old-growth forests as well as climate change.

Tribes were also not included in the original Northwest Forest Plan, according to the draft environmental impact study on the amendment. While developing the update, the Forest Service has offered webinars to indigenous representatives as well as round table discussions in tribal spaces. Two tribal representatives are also part of an interdisciplinary development team for the amended Northwest Forest Plan.

The U.S. Forest Service is considering four approaches to the amended plan. The first alternative, Alternative A, is to leave the 1994 plan as is.

The second alternative, Alternative B, aims to incorporate indigenous knowledge into the decision-making process when it comes to managing the public land.. It also focuses on conserving and creating more mature and old-growth forest conditions and restoring ecosystems to shore up resilience to wildfires. This alternative also recognizes that wildfires and prescribed burns are an ecological and cultural function in healthy forests, according to the draft EIS.

“Proposed updates to the NWFP under Alternative B related to fire resilience address these basic facts by prioritizing wildfire risk reduction in areas that affect communities and infrastructure; recognizing the contribution of non-forested areas (such as meadows and woodlands) to wildland fire resilience; and support the use of wildland fire as a management tool where appropriate,” the Draft EIS states.

The third alternative, Alternative C, employs more restrictive limits on commercial logging for vegetation management and ecological restoration.

The final alternative, Alternative D, responds to public comment calling for more flexibility in forest restoration and efforts to reduce wildfire risk. It also provides for additional tribal co-stewardship and use of the lands included in the plan.

In its letter, penned by Assistant County Administrative Officer Randy Hooper, the Board of Supervisors took issue with Alternative C in the updated plan, which places more restrictions on logging. They were concerned that it would result in limited economic opportunities for local communities that rely on timber revenue as well as the possibility that it would limit recreation access.

Instead, the letter stated the county’s support for parts of Alternative B, which recognizes wildfire and prescribed burns as part of a healthy forest ecosystem, and Alternative D, which “promote active management and predictability in timber supply.”

Alternative B “aligns well with our fire prevention goals by prioritizing wildfire risk reduction near communities and treating 150,000 additional acres per decade beyond current levels,” the letter states.

However, Alternative D has a more aggressive approach, calling for 4.95 million acres of land to be treated for wildfire resilience per decade, the letter states. Both alternatives balance conservation with recreation, the county’s letter states, and emphasize “ensuring [a] sustainable timber supply and economic viability.”

Howard said the amended forest plan is “180 degrees from where it was 30-plus years ago,” but his District 5 colleague Dean Wilson said Hooper’s letter was a little too nice.

Wilson accused the U.S. Forest Service for mismanaging public lands within Del Norte County and that the agency should have approached local officials to collaborate before developing the plan. It’s the Forest Service’s job to make sure that the Northwest Forest Plan aligns with local land management plans, Wilson contended.

Wilson also took issue with the U.S. Forest Service’s efforts to include tribal involvement in the amended forest plan.

“They will reach out to the Tolowa Dee-ni’, they will reach out to the Yurok, but they will not reach out to us,” he said. “And that is unacceptable. It’s always been unacceptable to me and the fact that they do that, and the fact that the federal government takes so little care about those lands that are within our county and do not even ask for our participation, should not be allowed or tolerated by us.”

Public comment on the proposed amended Northwest Forest Plan is due by Monday. For more information, click here. For a more detailed look at the amended plan’s development, click here.