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Backgroiuid 



The Northwest Forest Plan (NFP) is the culmination of an 

 unprecedented effort in public land management to end years of 

 legal gridlock that nearly shut down an entire industry. On 

 April 2, 1993, President Clinton convened the Forest Conference 

 in Portland, Oregon to address the human and ecological needs 

 served by federal forests of the Pacific Northwest and northern 

 California. As a result, the President asked Jack Ward Thomas, 

 then the Chief Research Wildlife Biologist for the Pacific 

 Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences 

 Ladaoratory in LaGrande, Oregon, to lead an interagency 

 interdisciplinary teeim of expert scientists, economists, amd 

 sociologists to assess proposals for management of federal 

 forests in the range of the northern spotted owl . The tecun 

 produced a report "Forest Ecosystem Management: An Ecological, 

 Economic, and Social Assessment" (FEMAT) , assessing in detail ten 

 options. 



This report was used as the basis to develop alternatives for the 

 Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on Management 

 of Hcibitat for Late-Successional and Old-Growth Forest Related 

 Species Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl. The FEIS 

 was released in February 1994. A Record of Decision vras issued 

 April 1994, which jointly eunends the planning docviments of 19 

 National Forests and 7 Bureau of Land Management Districts. 



