Forest Service Reviews Species Studies, Protections
12/8/98
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Title: Forest Service Reviews Species Studies, Protections
Source: The Oregonian Staff
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 12/8/98
Byline: Hal Bernton
The blue-grey tail-dropper lacks the notoriety of the northern spotted
owl. But like the spotted owl, the tiny slug dwells in the old-growth
forests of the Pacific Northwest. And like the owl, it has the power to
silence a logger's saw.
Biologists have spent days crawling along the forest floor and checking
under logs and leaves to try to find the elusive creature in areas
scheduled for logging. To protect them from harm, federal land managers
have shelved plans to log at least 90 acres of federal forest timber.
The tail-dropper is among more than 75 obscure species that federal
officials must try to safeguard as they take on the controversial task
of logging old-growth forests. The effort to find and protect these
species has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and federal officials
have decided to review whether some of this work is necessary.
The species include the ground-hugging mollusks, salamanders and fungi
and wispy, tree-hanging lichens that drape the top branches of fir
trees. President Clinton's 1994 Northwest Forest Plan listed the
species, along with the threatened spotted owl, as at possible risk of
disappearing from public lands.
The forest plan was a hard-fought compromise to allow logging on public
lands inhabited by the spotted owl. It emerged from years of political
firestorms and court battles about the level of logging in the 24.4
million acres of federal forests in Western Oregon, Washington and
Northern California. As part of a deal, the plan ordered extensive
surveys for all the species before any activity that disturbs the
ground.
Since the plan's passage, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land
Management biologists say they have recorded more than 10,000 sightings
of these and other little-known species during a series of surveys that
have helped chart the stunning diversity of life among the centuries-old
trees.
The role some of these species play in the ecosystem is only beginning
to be understood. Some fungi, for example, help provide nutrients and
water for trees and protect them from disease.
"We've learned a heck of a lot about these things," said Cheryl
McCaffrey, a BLM biologist.
As of Oct. 1, the surveys are required before any timber sales. But
last week, agency officials announced that they want to reconsider the
work. They said the survey and protection requirements could greatly
reduce the ability to log, build trails and graze livestock in the
forest. The requirements also could hamper efforts to improve forest
health by setting fires that thin overcrowded stands.
Forest Service officials said they might want to ease protections for
species such as the tail-dropper that might be more widespread than once
thought.
The tail-dropper varies from steely gray to almost turquoise. If it
loses its rear to a predator, it can grow a new one. Only five sightings
had been documented when federal biologists began looking for the slug.
They've now found more than 1,500.
"We're simply trying to take into account the years of information
we've gathered and make changes as warranted," said Greg Cox, a Forest
Service official who will help lead the yearlong review.
Timber industry officials welcome the effort. They have been frustrated
by the numerous conservation measures that have slowed federal efforts
to meet timber harvest levels that the Clinton forest plan promised.
They note that though these species might be rare, none is listed under
the Endangered Species Act.
Surveys questioned They also question the time and expense of the
surveys.
"We're spending hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars across
the Northwest," said Chris West of the Northwest Forestry Association.
Environmentalists are wary of the review. They say the federal surveys
fall far short of what was required under the Clinton plan.
In a lawsuit filed this year against the government, they cited more
than 30 species the agencies failed to look for before putting timber up
for bid. They said the surveys should have included tracking of the red
tree vole, a small mammal that is important prey to the spotted owl.
Conservationists also say that the Forest Service failed to provide
annual status reports on the surveys, as the Clinton plan requires.
"They promised to do these surveys as a way to keep clear-cutting the
old growth," said Doug Heiken of the Oregon Natural Resources Council,
one of 13 plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "If they're not going to keep doing
the surveys, then they need to rethink their old-growth liquidation
strategy."
Heiken said the easiest way to protect all the species would be to stop
public logging in Northwest old-growth forests.
The Clinton plan blocked logging in nearly 80 percent of the remaining
old growth on public lands.
But the plan also made a commitment to the timber industry: From the
lands that remained open to harvest, the plan called for logging about 1
billion board feet of timber annually. That's about one-fifth as much as
had been logged during the record-harvest years of the late 1980s.
The federal lands didn't have enough young timber available to meet
that goal, said Tom Tuchmann, a former Clinton administration official
who helped put the plan into action. Much of the harvest volume has had
to come from cutting big, old trees.
Some species hard to spot As such timber sales are prepared, biologists
consult their literature to determine what at-risk species might be
present. Then they go into the field to try to find them.
In the Eugene District of the BLM, a crew of nine spent the spring
walking timber sales looking for slugs and snails. Three other crews
searched for fungi, lichens, mosses, flowering plants and salamanders.
But some species elude easy identification.
The evening field slug is a pinkish-brown mollusk that lives in the
Cascades. It looks so much like other snails that the only way Forest
Service officials have found to identify it is by dissection. But they
said they are reluctant to kill what might prove to be an extremely rare
slug.
Other species, such as a mushroomlike fungus known as Otidea leoporina,
may poke up in any one spot only a few times a decade. That makes it
impossible in a one-year ground survey to determine whether they exist
on a site.
Then there's the tail-dropper. It lives for only one year, and during
the spring survey season it's a fledgling, often about one-eighth of an
inch long. Biologists must slowly grope around on mountainsides and
canyons in search of the slug.
But Nancy Duncan, a Roseburg-based federal biologist, said a glimpse of
such striking mollusks offers a payoff to the tedious work. "They're
beautiful, elegant," Duncan said.
Hal Bernton writes for the Environment and Natural Resources Team. He can
be reached at 503-294-7689 or halbernton@news.oregonian.com.