What Is Survey and Manage?


    A heightened concern over the conservation of forest fungi has developed in the last 10 years in the Pacific Northwest for two primary reasons. Over 230 species of rare, old-growth forest dependent species were listed for protection under a federally mandated regional forest conservation program. The vast forests of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, an area outlined by the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, are well known for their rich diversity of macrofungi. Issues relating to conservation and management of forest fungi in the Pacific Northwest must be placed in the context of public land resources and Federal laws regulating forest management.

    The Pacific Northwest has the greatest amount of Federal forest in the United States, about 9.8 million hectares in Oregon and Washington alone. The lands are managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, and the U.S. Department of the Interior (USDI), Bureau of Land Management and National Parks Service. Each agency has different overall management goals. Several Federal laws and statutes, including the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Protection Act, and the National Forest Management Act, provide strict rules governing the planning and implementation of forest management and monitoring activities. These laws also provide for public input in planning and management.

    Over the last four decades, legal challenges to the development and implementation of forest plans have greatly shaped the current directions for managing public forests. These directions and decisions have direct relevance to the conservation and management of forest fungi. During the late 1980s and early 1990s a series of lawsuits sharply curtailed the harvest of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. At the center of the controversy was the old-growth dependent northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis), a rare species protected by the Endangered Species Act. Because the economy of many Pacific Northwest communities relied strongly on timber harvest from Federal forests, this action created political controversy.

    In 1992, President Clinton held a regional forest conference as a first step toward balancing the economic needs of the region with the protection of endangered species and old-growth forest habitat on Federal land. This eventually led to a scientific assessment of the problem (FEMAT, 1993) and development of the Northwest Forest Plan (USDA & USDI, 1994a). The plan strives to provide for a sustainable level of timber harvest and persistence of old-growth forest dependent species based on a region-wide allocation of land uses, including reserve and non-reserve areas. As part of the overall scientific assessment process, many rare species requiring old-growth forest habitat were analyzed for protection under the land reserves and forest management guidelines.   In the final analysis, about 234 old-growth dependent, rare, fungal species were listed for additional protection under the Survey and Manage guidelines of the Record of Decision (USDA & USDI, 1994b).

    The Record of Decision is the final legally binding document that defines how the Northwest Forest Plan is to be implemented. The Survey and Manage guidelines detail the course of mitigations required by management to protect the species. Although not a part of the listing process for the Endangered Species Act, this action still represents the first Federal listing of fungal species for protection in the United States and highlights the need for a research program addressing poorly understood conservation issues for forest fungi.