Timber Resources

Objectives

Provide a sustainable supply of timber and other forest products.

Manage developing stands on available lands to promote tree survival and growth and to achieve a balance between wood volume production, quality of wood, and timber value at harvest.

Manage timber stands to reduce the risk of stand loss from fires, animals, insects, and diseases.

Provide for salvage harvest of timber killed or damaged by events such as wildfire, windstorms, insects, or disease, consistent with management objectives for other resources.

Land Use Allocations

Lands available for scheduled timber harvest are as follows:

Areas	Gross Acres	Net Acres
General Forest Management Area (including visual resource management class II, rural interface, and TPCC restricted)	448,778	147,093
Connectivity/Diversity Blocks	27,237	11,121
Adaptive Management Areas (excluding AMR)	113,914	32,781

Lands Available for Timber Harvest Only for Enhancement of Other Uses

Lands determined to be economically marginal are not included in the timber allocation. Timber harvest could occur from those lands when economic conditions made them economical and where consistent with land use allocations.

On lands unavailable for planned forest management such as woodlands, recreation sites, late-successional reserves, protection buffers, riparian reserves, ACECs, wild river corridors, habitat for threatened and endangered, and special status species including the northern spotted owl, TPCC withdrawn lands, etc., timber harvest will occur only as part of strategies to enhance other resources such as riparian habitat, wildlife habitat, or management of special areas. Harvest from these lands, if they occur, are not included in the ASQ.

The following lists some of the reasons that timber harvest could occur on these lands.

To reduce road construction, thereby reducing overall cumulative effects;
Salvage timber killed or substantially damaged by fire, windthrow, insect infestation, or other catastrophe. Such harvest would be accomplished under special silvicultural prescriptions designed to meet the needs of nontimber allocations made on these lands;
Provide for the safety of forest users (including removing hazard trees along roads and trails, in camp grounds, and administrative sites, etc.);
Facilitate construction, operation, and maintenance of new facilities such as roads, trails, power lines, communication facilities, recreation or administrative facilities, etc.;
Scientific or research studies;
Isolate and release Douglas-fir, sugar pine, or other individual test trees;
Maintain or enhance fish and wildlife habitats;
Facilitate development of mines, quarries, or fluid mineral leases;
Modify high fuel hazard areas by construction of shaded fuel breaks and/or increase defensible space for fire suppression by maintenance of early seral stage conditions. Such activity could occur to provide protection for timber production areas, old-growth blocks, or developed recreational facilities;
To provide more logical logging units limited timber harvest could occur on TPCC withdrawn lands;
Rights-of-way;
Salvage of mortality volume in areas notllocated to timber production could occur if consistent with the objectives of the allocation; and
Forest health treatments.

Management Actions/Direction for Timber Management within Matrix Lands

Apply silvicultural systems that are planned to produce over time, forests that have desired species composition, structural characteristics, and distribution of seral or age classes (See Appendix E and Table 9 for details).

Matrix lands in the Medford District are divided into the northern general forest management area, the southern general forest management area, and connectivity/diversity blocks. Collectively, these areas are referred to as the general forest management area. The line dividing the northern and southern GFMAs is meant to be flexible, Also, there will be local situations in the northern GFMA that should be managed along southern GFMA prescription guidelines and visa versa.

Matrix lands are where most timber harvest and other silvicultural activities will be conducted within suitable forestlands, according to the following management actions/direction.

Timber Harvest

Declare an allowable sale quantity of 9.7 million cubic feet (57.1 million board feet).

The allowable sale quantity for the resource management plan is an estimate of annual average timber sale volume likely to be achieved from lands allocated to planned, sustainable harvest. Harvest of this approximate volume of timber is considered sustainable over the long term. This is based on assumptions that the available land base remains fixed, and that funding is sufficient to make planned investments in timely reforestation, plantation maintenance, thinning, genetic selection, forest fertilization, timber sale planning, related forest resource protection, and monitoring.
The allowable sale quantity represents neither a minimum level that must be met nor a maximum level that cannot be exceeded. It is an approximation because of the difficulty associated with predicting actual timber sale levels over the next decade, given the complex nature of many of the management actions/direction. It represents BLM's best assessment of the average amount of timber likely to be awarded annually in the planning area over the life of the plan, following a start-up period. The actual sustainable timber sale level attributable to the land use allocations and management direction of the resource management plan may deviate by as much as 20 percent from the identified allowable sale quantity. As inventory, watershed analysis and site-specific planning proceed in conformance with that management direction, the knowledge gained will permit refinement of the allowable sale quantity. The separable component of the allowable sale quantity attributable to lands in key watersheds carries a higher level of uncertainty, due to the greater constraints of Aquatic Conservation Strategy objectives and the requirement to prepare watershed analyses before activities can take place.
During the first several years, the annual probable sale quantity will not likely be offered for sale. The resource management plan represents a new forest management plan represents a new forest management strategy. Time will be required to develop new timber sales that conform to the resource management plan.

Management Actions/Direction - General

Provide a renewable supply of large down logs well distributed across the Matrix lands in a manner that meets the needs of species and provides for ecological functions. Down logs will reflect the species mix of the original stand. Models will be developed for groups of plant associations and stand types that can be used as a baseline for developing prescriptions.

Leave a minimum of 120 linear feet of logs per acre greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter and 16 feet long. Decay class 1 and 2 logs will be credited toward the total. Where this management actions/direction cannot be met with existing coarse woody debris, merchantable material will be used to make up the deficit;
In areas of partial harvest, apply the same basic management actions/direction, but they can be modified to reflect the timing of stand development cycles; and
Retain coarse woody debris already on the ground and protect it to the greatest extent possible from disturbance during treatment (e.g., slash burning and yarding).

Retain 100 acres of the best northern spotted owl habitat as close as possible to a nest site or owl activity center for all known (as of January 1, 1994) northern spotted owl activity centers.

Retain late-successional forest patches in landscape areas where little late-successional forest persists. This management actions/direction will be applied in fifth field watersheds (20 to 200 square miles) in which Federal forestlands are currently comprised of 15 percent or less late-successional forest. (The assessment of 15 percent will include all Federal land allocations in a watershed.) Within such an area, protect all remaining late-successional forest stands. Protection of these stands could be modified in the future when other portions of a watershed have recovered to the point where they could replace the ecological roles of these stands.

Provide a renewable supply of large live trees and snags well distributed across the Matrix lands in a manner that provides habitat for cavity using birds, bats, and other species; provides structure and habitat diversity; provides future sources of large down logs; and provides for other ecological functions. Retained live trees and snags will reflect the species mix of the original stand. Emphasize retention of the larger trees and snags available to provide the unique structure and functions associated with these large old trees.

Within the General Forest Management Area north of Grants Pass (northern GFMA) retain at least 6 to 8 green conifer trees per acre in regeneration harvest units; and
Within the General Forest Management Area south of Grants Pass (southern GFMA) retain at least 16 to 25 large, green conifer trees per acre in regeneration harvest units.

Retain snags and trees within a timber harvest unit at levels sufficient to support species of cavity-nesting birds at 40 percent of potential population levels. Meet the 40 percent minimum throughout the Matrix with per-acre requirements met on average areas no larger than 40 acres.

Modify site treatment practices, particularly the use of fire and pesticides, and modify harvest methods to minimize soil and litter disturbance. Plan and implement treatments to:

Minimize intensive burning unless appropriate for specific habitats, communities, or stand conditions. Prescribed fires should be planned to minimize the consumption of litter and coarse woody debris;
Minimize soil and litter disturbance that may occur as a result of yarding and operation of heavy equipment; and
Reduce the intensity and frequency of site treatments.

Retain some large hardwood trees, where present in harvest units, to provide habitat diversity.

Management Actions/Direction - Connectivity/Diversity Blocks Spaced Throughout the Matrix Lands in the Northern GFMA:

Maintain at least 25 to 30 percent of each block in late-successional forest. Riparian reserves and other allocations with late-successional forest count toward this percentage. Blocks may be comprised of contiguous or noncontiguous BLM-administered land. The size and arrangement of habitat within a block will provide effective habitat to the extent possible.

Schedule regeneration harvests on a 150-year area control rotation.

Retain at least 12 to 18 green conifer trees per acre in regeneration harvest units.

Management Actions/Direction - All Land Use Allocations

To mitigate damage caused by Phytophthora lateralis, an introduced root disease that is fatal to Port-orford cedar, all management activities occurring within the range of Port-orford cedar will conform to the guidelines described in the BLM Port-Orford Cedar Management Plan. Site specific analyses for projects within the range of Port-orford cedar will consider possible effects on the species.