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The President's Forest Plan established a blueprint, a science-based, legal, and balanced forest 

 management plan that provides for both economic opportunity and protection of the environment 

 through five fundamental goals. In June of 1994, just two months after the Plan's Record of 

 Decision was adopted, the Federal court injunctions banning timber harvest fi'om Federal lands 

 were lifted. Timber sales in the region of the northern spotted owl were once again prepared and 

 offered and timber was harvested. Earlier this year, the President's Forest Plan was upheld by a 

 Federal appeals court. 



The President created the Northwest Forest Plan to resolve intense disputes about use of the 

 public forests. Individuals on both sides of the issue were driven by passionately-held beliefs, and 

 the compromise reached in the Forest Plan did not please every interested party. However, the 

 Forest Plan has had many successes ~ retraining dislocated timber workers, providing a stable, 

 sustainable supply of timber, protecting wildlife habitat, and collaborative Adaptive Management 

 Area planning. 



Let me now turn to specifics of the BLM's implementation of the Forest Plan. In so doing, I am 

 reminded that the Forest Plan concerns itself with living things ~ people, trees, fish, and wildlife — 

 and is therefore a process, not a result. We measure our accomplishments, past, present, and 

 future, against the Plan's five fundamental goals. 



Goal #1. Support the region's people and communities during a period of economic 



transition. 



From the start, the President made clear his goal was to relieve the paralysis that had gripped 

 timber-dependent communities in the Pacific Northwest during the gridlock. To help these 

 communities diversify their economies, the President developed a five-year, $1.2 billion economic 

 assistance package. It has awarded millions of dollars in grants and loans to stimulate business 

 growth and economic development in rural communities in Washington, Oregon, and California, 



