Project Overview:
The Northwest Forest Plan Socio-Economic Monitoring project was a three-year joint effort by IFCAE and U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station social scientists to assess the socioeconomic impacts of the environmental protection, timber production, and economic assistance provisions of the Northwest Forest Plan on forest communities in Oregon, Washington, and California. In Phase I, the research team carried out case studies of the Mount Hood, Olympic, and Klamath National Forests, the Coos Bay Bureau of Land Management District, and twelve rural communities. In Phase II, the team applied the methods developed during Phase I to the Okanogan National Forest and five surrounding communities. The assessment team found that communities differed greatly in their ability to cope with the social and economic shocks associated with the sharp decline in the amount of federal timber available after the Plan’s implementation. Larger, less remote, and more economically diverse communities tended to do better, in part because residents had the skills and knowledge needed to take advantage of the economic assistance programs associated with the Plan. The team also found that chronic and substantial declines in the Forest Service’s budget and personnel hampered the ability of the agency to invest in alternative management infrastructures, such as tourism and recreation, to replace the timber-focused management infrastructure.