A Settlement Agreement for the Douglas Timber Operators, et al. v. Secretary of Agriculture and Interior, et al (the Industry Survey and Manage (S&M) Lawsuit) has been filed with the court.  This settlement agreement commits the Forest Service (FS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to publish a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (FSEIS) by June 27, 2003, and publish a Record of Decision (ROD) by July 28, 2003.  The new FSEIS will, “…supplement the 2000 S&M FSEIS by considering an alternative that replaces the Survey and Manage mitigation requirements with existing Forest Service and BLM special status species programs…” The administration has identified this as a high priority workload for FS and BLM and expects us to meet settlement agreement time lines.

In order to comply with the requirements of the settlement agreement we are in the process of forming a SEIS team.  The short SEIS time frames will require immediate allocation of resources and commitment of staff to accomplish tasks and complete reviews. 

The most important thing you can do is to continue aggressive implementation of the existing ROD and Standards and Guidelines (S&G) for Amendments to the S&M, Protection Buffer, and other Mitigation Measures S&G (January 2001).  We are still working under the current S&M S&Gs.  The use of Pre-Disturbance Surveys, Survey Protocols and Management Recommendations (MR) is still in effect, until the National Environmental Policy Act process is complete and we have a new ROD.

Information that is gathered through Strategic Surveys and Pre-Disturbance Surveys will continue to be valuable in conducting Annual Species Reviews, and updating MRs and Survey Protocols.  This information will also be valuable for the management of these species under our Special Status Species Programs if that SEIS alternative is selected.  The input of all data into the Interagency Species Management System is essential.  The data that you collected is not available to the decision makers unless you complete this step.

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It will take all of us working together to complete this task.  We expect you to continue with implementation of the current S&M ROD and your support to the SEIS team.

If you have additional questions on the new SEIS call Dick Prather, Acting SEIS Team Leader at

503-808-2491.  Questions regarding implementation under the existing S&M SEIS and ROD should be addressed to Terry Brumley, Interagency S&M Program Manager, at 503-808-2968.