The only modification from the draft environmental impact statement that the plan incorporates is the prohibition of logging in suitable spotted owl habitat until the Sierra-wide environmental impact statement establishes new spotted owl management guidelines. Approximately 11 percent of the lands in the three national forests will be affected over the five years. Because guidelines for suitable spotted owl habitat have not been established, the Forest Service can only estimate how much timber will be up for sale each of the five years. Rough estimates are that between 200 million and 286 million board feet will be sold annually, an increase over the amounts sold between 1993 and 1998, which averaged 126 million board feet of timber a year. According to the Wilderness Society, full-scale implementation of the current plan could cause serious environmental damage and is in violation to existing environmental laws.
Spotted owls require old growth forest habitat for their survival.
The Wilderness Society says the Quincy plan fails ecological sustainability tests conducted by the Sierra Nevada Framework Project, a comprehensive, science and map-based conservation plan conducted by the Forest Service that is expected to be released within the next few months. A significant flaw in the full-scale plan, they say is that it fails to protect all wild roadless areas that are 1,000 acres or larger. In addition, the Wilderness Society is concerned that the Quincy plan will eventually take over the area that has been designated as spotted owl habitat and could harm other endangered wildlife. The Wilderness Society has urged the Forest Service to remedy this flaw in the Quincy plan and to adopt policies that protect wild lands in its pending Sierra Nevada-wide planning process. Along with dozens of other environmental groups, a coalition of local businesses, local government officials and some 8,500 members of the public nationwide, the Wilderness Society is calling for the adoption of a different alternative to the full-scale implementation of the Quincy plan.