OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Stephanie Hanna (O) 202/208-6416

January 30, 1997 Tony Floor (O) 360/534-9330

CLINTON ADMINISTRATION’S McGINTY, BABBITT TO FINALIZE STATEWIDE CONSERVATION PLAN FOR WASHINGTON STATE’S FOREST LANDS

Kathleen A. McGinty, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt joined Jennifer Belcher, Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands today in Seattle to finalize approval of a 70-100 year habitat conservation plan (HCP) for more than 285 species of fish and wildlife on 1.6 million acres of Washington state-managed forests. This habitat plan is the largest agreement of its kind on forested lands. The Washington state Department of Natural Resources HCP will now join four large private timber harvesting companies, that have completed similar agreements, resulting in 2,135,000 acres of northwest forested land managed for long-term habitat conservation.

“America’s conservation challenge in the 21st Century is for private citizens, states and the federal government to work in partnership as stewards of the land,” McGinty said. “Today’s agreement shows us the way.”

“This HCP offers a unique opportunity to prove that strong, biologically-based habitat protections can be maintained for the long-term side-by-side with sustainable timber harvests,” Babbitt said. “President Clinton made a commitment in 1993 to help this region reach a balance between species protection and strong economies, and this Administration, with unprecedented cooperation from state governments and private timber companies, is proving decisively that it can be done. Together with the President’s Forest Plan, we are creating a conservation mosaic across Washington’s magnificent forests that will lead to survival, indeed recovery, of aquatic species and wildlife now endangered or in peril while offering long-term certainty for rural timber economies, students and other state trust beneficiaries.”

An HCP is a land management plan authorized under the Endangered Species Act to conserve threatened and endangered species. For the Department of Natural Resources, it means a comprehensive plan for state trust lands that allows timber harvesting and other management activities while emphasizing species conservation and ecosystem health. This plan has been approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Under the Act, the “taking” of a listed, threatened or endangered species -- killing, harming, or harassing a species, or adversely modifying habitat -- is prohibited without special authorization from the Fish and Wildlife Service. Through a habitat conservation plan negotiated with the Service, however, an applicant can be permitted to “take” a listed species if the taking is incidental and is part of a larger conservation plan that will not jeopardize the continued existence of the species and is incidental to legal activities.

Part of the Department of Natural Resources HCP replaces spotted owl protection circles with a more flexible approach to protect the owl, which is listed as a threatened species under the Act. The conservation strategy supports spotted owl populations in designated areas that scientists have determined to be most important to owl conservation based on proximity to federal reserves. Currently, there are 344 owl protection circles on the Department’s land affecting timber activities on 600,000 acres.

West of the Cascade Mountain range, this HCP also provides habitat protection for: steelhead; sockeye, pink, chum, chinook and coho salmon; sea-run cutthroat trout; and bull trout. The HCP allows carefully managed timber harvest within streamside buffers as long as precautions are taken to protect fish habitat.

The Department of Natural Resources manages 5 million acres in Washington state of forest, aquatic, agricultural and urban lands for benefits to current and future trust beneficiaries and other residents of the state. Of this land, 2.1 million acres are forest lands. By state law, state-owned trust lands must be managed primarily to produce income for public schools, universities, prisons, state mental hospitals, community colleges, local services in many counties, and the state general fund.

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