52 



of the conference, the President announced that he would commit 

 the resources of his administration to developing a solution to the 

 crisis in 90 days. 



Soon after, the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment 

 Team, or FEMAT, was established, with Jack Thomas as chair. Dr. 

 Thomas was then chief scientist of the Forest Service, operating 

 out of La Grande, Oregon, and had made his mark in this issue 

 through his leadership of the Bush administration's interagency 

 spotted owl committee and through his participation in the House 

 Agriculture Committee's Gang of Four study. Jack assembled a di- 

 verse team of natural resource agency experts and academicians 

 with expertise in biology, sociology, ecology, hydrology, fisheries 

 and wildlife management, silviculture, and economics. The team 

 was assembled in Portland and began its work. 



Under the gun and under fire, the team worked tirelessly to de- 

 velop a comprehensive, innovative, and provocative report identify- 

 ing a range of options for resolving forest management crises af- 

 fecting the region. That report led to the development of a plan 

 that eventually became the Clinton administration's strategy for 

 resolving the gridlock in the Pacific Northwest. 



The plan itself was to provide for the protection of old growth for- 

 ests and associated flora and fauna in the region and to provide for 

 the sustainable harvest of timber from the forest. However, the for- 

 est plan was not simply about forest management. It recognized 

 that the region's economy was in transition from a strong depend- 

 ence upon wood products to a more diversified economy which 

 would benefit from a wider array of all the goods and services pro- 

 vided by the national forests of the region. 



For this reason, the Northwest Forest Plan included measures to 

 aid unemployed loggers and mill workers, to assist communities in 

 identifying means to diversify their economic basis, and funds to 

 retrofit mills and develop the needed infrastructure to improve and 

 expand upon existing industries and facilities. 



The President's forest plan is truly a revolutionary plan and it 

 marks a new paradigm for forest management, not only in the Pa- 

 cific Northwest but throughout the United States. The Northwest 

 Economic Adjustment Initiative, a multi-Federal agency effort, pro- 

 vides immediate and long-term assistance to people, businesses, 

 and communities where changes in forest industry and Federal for- 

 est management practices have affected the economic and social 

 fabric of areas dependent upon timber. County payments which 

 have traditionally been taken from Federal timber receipts are now 

 governed by special revenue sharing provisions in the Omnibus 

 Reconciliation Act of 1993. 



Each State, Oregon, Washington, and California, has a group 

 called the State Economic Revitalization Team, or CERT, to coordi- 

 nate the implementation of the economic assistance programs. 

 Members of Federal, State, local, and tribal governments and the 

 private sector work cooperatively on these teams to make effective 

 use of funds available to help businesses and communities. 



For instance. Forest Service efforts include providing technical 

 and financial assistance to displaced timber workers and busi- 

 nesses and communities through the Jobs in the Woods program, 

 the old growth diversification and community assistance programs. 



