Opinion ID: 169168
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Ashley National Forest Plan

Text: 11 The forest plan was adopted in 1986 and is intended to guide all natural resource management activities and establish management standards and guidelines for the Ashley National Forest. II Aplt.App. at 348. The plan designates twelve management indicator species for the Ashley National Forest, one of which is the CRCT. Id. at 553-54. The forest plan includes a provision directing the forest service to: 12 Complete [an] inventory of Management Indicator Species on the Forest to determine their occurrence, abundance, distribution, habitat requirements, and populations trends. 13 Id. at 419. 14 With respect to CRCT, the forest plan gives specific directives for how the species should be monitored. It directs that CRCT be monitored using population estimates and that such estimates be conducted and reported every five years. Id. at 549, 553. The plan states that further evaluation of CRCT populations will be necessary, or a change in management direction could occur, if there is a 20% reduction in population or if the biotic condition index 5 drops below 75. Id. at 553. 15 The forest plan also contains standards governing old-growth trees. It directs the Forest Service to [d]esignate and protect old growth areas for dependent species and provides that [o]ld growth should be a minimum of 160 contiguous acres and have old growth characteristics. Id. at 419. The plan specifically directs the Forest Service to [r]etain 5% of area in old growth conditions at all times. . . . Id. The forest plan does not define old growth or specify a method for its identification. For purposes of this project, the Forest Service defined old growth by using three old-growth attributes identified in R.G. Hamilton, United States Department of Agriculture, Characteristics of Old Growth Forests in the Intermountain Region (1993).