How the Plan protects biodiversity The Pacific northwest's old-growth forests not only harbor globally significant biodiversity, but remain some of the most commercially exploited forests in the world. This leads to conflict that has yet to be resolved. The experts who put the Northwest Forest Plan together identified over 1,000 species associated with old-growth forests west of the Cascade Range in Washington, Oregon and northern California. Scientists remain concerned that the plan may not adequately protect more than half of these species. Every species plays a role in making forests beautiful and biologically productive.
None is expendable.
An Aquatic Conservation Strategy included in the plan establishes stream-side reserves to protect salmon and water quality. The system of forest reserves is intended to provide adequate habitat for species whose members have the capacity to disperse from the area where they were born and successfully breed at another locale. But experts predicted that fewer than half the species they analyzed would flourish under this plan. The fortunate species are expected to survive mostly because they are either very abundant, thrive in clearcuts, or are very mobile. Populations of species such as the spotted owl and American marten are expected to thrive in the reserves and occasionally move between them to maintain long-term genetic links between populations.