Private Industrial Forestlands/HCPs

Industrial timber corporations increasingly are electing to use the habitat conservation planning provisions of the Endangered Species Act to negotiate long-term conservation agreements with federal regulators. PRC's strategic participation in these plans is essential to ensure that private landowners do not receive immunity from prosecution for harm to protected species that is not justified by strong conservation commitments.

Pacific Rivers Council assesses habitat conservation plans (HCPs) with three fundamental tenets in mind. First, all HCPs must minimize harmful risks and impacts, and then mitigate for any remaining harmful risks and impacts. Second, scientifically defensible and legally enforceable aquatic standards must be part of all state and private forestland planning. Third, none of these plans can be permitted to undermine the recovery of aquatic ecosystems.

Three significant HCPs with which PRC has been involved are the Plum Creek Timber Company's Native Fish HCP, the Green Diamond Resource Company (formerly Simpson Resource Company) HCP in California, and the Simpson HCP in Washington.

Green Diamond Resource Company

In Northern California, PRC followed the development of the Green Diamond Resource Company's Habitat Conservation Plan. Because both FWS and NMFS proposed to approve this plan, PRC issued a powerful critique of the plan, outlining the need to significantly improve the plan before it's approval.

After extensive scientific review, we believe that several key points in the plan are insufficient. Among other issues, we believe that the plan's objectives, and its unstable slope and riparian management protections are inadequate to meet the needs of both salmon and stream-breeding amphibians.

The Final HCP was approved in June of 2007.

Simpson Timber Company (WA)

Click here to read a press release regarding our involvement with the Simpson Timber Company in Washington State in 2000.

Plum Creek Timber Company

In November of 2000, the federal government approved Plum Creek Timber Company's Native Fish HCP, which affects 1.6 million acres in Washington, Idaho and Montana and 17 species of salmon and trout. The approval came despite our suggestions for improvement of the plan to make it more sensitive to native fish.  (Click to read our comments on the draft plan and on the final plan). This plan is of critical importance because it is among the largest aquatic habitat conservation plans ever negotiated and the first of its size in the interior West covering eight native fish species. The plan allows Plum Creek to harm bull trout, steelhead, Chinook salmon and westslope cutthroat trout, among others, and as long as it remains unchallenged, there is no legal recourse for citizens to stop this harm.