Summary of the introduction to the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) is as follows. The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has prepared a multi-species Habitat Conservation Plan to address issues related to the state’s land. The Endangered Species Act covers these trust land management issues. Three million acres make up these trust lands and of those 2.1 million are forested lands. The HCP covers approximately 1.6 million acres of state trust forested lands. All 2.1 million forested land falls under the spotted owl nesting, roosting and foraging habitat, which is managed by the DNR

This plan will allow the DNR to harvest and manage state trust lands while furnishing conservation for endangered species. "Incidental take is allowed within limits defined by an incidental take permit issued by the federal government. Incidental take includes the disturbance of habitat of an endangered or threatened species."(DNR, 1997)

The Washougal Watershed is in the Columbia (west side) planning unit that includes the Skamania County. There is 286,000 acres of DNR-managed lands in this unit covered by the HCP.

Since the lands covered by the HCP are trust lands the DNR has special obligations. The majority of these lands were granted under the Enabling Act and the State Constitution when Washington became a state in 1889. These trust lands are to benefit such state institutions as public schools, state universities, and charitable, educational, penal, and reformatory institutions.

The Washougal Watershed Unit has been designated as a dispersal habitat for spotted owls. According to the HCP dispersal habitat is the movement of juvenile, subadult, and adult animals from one sub-population to another. For juvenile spotted owls, dispersal is the process of leaving natal territory to establish a new territory. HCP requirement of dispersal habitat will be maintained on 50% of lands selected for dispersal habitat role.

The are of interest to us is in Section 17 and 8 of the Washougal Watershed Unit. The east and west boundaries of these sections are also our harvesting boundaries. The north boundary is approximately 500 feet north of the Type 3 stream in Section 8 and the south boundary is the Type 1 stream in Section 17. For better harvesting boundaries see Plans. Definitions of stream typing are under the Forest Practices Act.

Dispersal habitat is important to the spotted owl to allow protection from predators and space for foraging. Given the amount of loss of older forest habitat, it is necessary to require nesting, roosting and foraging areas. The Interagency Scientific Committee’s report recommended that forested federal lands between designated Habitat Conservation Areas be managed such that 50% of every quarter township have forest stands in which trees have an average dbh of 11 inches and at least 40 percent canopy closure. This is commonly known as the 50-11-40 rule. Canopy closure is the degree to which the canopy (forest layers above one’s head) blocks sunlight or obscures the sky. For our designated harvest area we are going assume a quarter township is the same as the total area.(DNR, 1997)

Conservation Objectives:

The riparian management zone consists of an inner riparian buffer zone and outer wind buffer where needed.

A riparian buffer shall be applied to both sides of Type 1, 2, & 3 streams. The buffer width shall be approximately equal to the site potential height of trees in a mature conifer stand or 100 feet, whichever is greater. The height shall be derived from standard site index tables, using 100 years as the age at breast height of mature conifer stands. The site index table used will be that corresponding to the dominant conifer species occurring in the upland portion of the riparian zone. Average widths should be between 150-160 feet. A riparian buffer of 100 feet wide shall be applied to both sides of Type 4 waters. In the field, the width of the riparian buffer shall be measured as the horizontal distance from and perpendicular to, the outer margin of the 100-year floodplain. Type 5 streams follow the requirements of the Forest Practices Act.(DNR, 1997)

Wind buffers: An outer wind buffer shall be applied on Types 1, 2, & 3 waters in areas that are prone to windthrow. Windthrow means a natural process by which trees are uprooted or sustain severe trunk damage by wind. The Washougal Watershed Unit will be categorized as a potential windthrow area. For Type 1 & 2 waters, where it is at least a moderate potential for windthrow, a 100-foot wind buffer shall be placed along the windward side(s).(DNR, 1997)

For more information on the Habitat Conservation Plan you can check out the Washington State DNR HCP. 

1. Type 1 water means all water, within their ordinary high-water mark, as inventoried as "shorelines of the state" under chapter 90.58 RCW, but not including those waters' associated wetlands as defined in chapter 90.58 RCW.
2. Type 2 water shall mean segments of natural waters, which are not, classified as Type 1 Water and have a high fish, wildlife, or human use.
3. Type 3 water shall mean segments of natural waters, which are not classified as Type 1 or 2 Water and have moderate to slight fish, wildlife, and human use.
4. Type 4 water classification shall be applied to segments of natural waters which are not classified as Type 1, 2, or 3, and for the purpose of protecting water quality downstream are classified as Type 4 Water upstream until the channel width becomes less than 2 feet in width between the ordinary high-water marks. Their significance lies in their influence on water quality downstream in Type 1, 2, and 3 Waters. These may be perennial or intermittent.
5. Type 5 water classification shall be applied to all natural waters not classified as Type 1, 2, 3, or 4; including streams with or without well-defined channels, areas of perennial or intermittent seepage, ponds, natural sinks and drainageways having short periods of spring or storm runoff.

(Washington Forest Practices Board, 1995)

All definitions are taken from Chapter 222-16 WAC Definitions of the Forest Practices Act.

"Green recruitment trees" means those trees left after harvest for the purpose of becoming wildlife reserve trees.

"Wildlife reserve trees" means those defective, dead, damaged, or dying trees which provide or have the potential to provide habitat for those wildlife species dependent on standing trees. Wildlife reserve trees are categorized as follows:

Type 1 wildlife reserve trees are defective or deformed live trees that have observably sound tops, limbs, trunks, and roots. They may have part of the top broken out or have evidence of other severe defects that include: animal chewing, old logging wounds, weather injury, insect attack, or lightning strike. Unless approved by the landowner, only green trees with visible cavities, nests, or obvious severe defects capable of supporting cavity dependent species shall be considered as Type 1 wildlife reserve trees. These trees must be stable and pose the least hazard for workers.

Type 2 wildlife reserve trees are dead Type 1 trees with sound tops, limbs, trunks, and roots.

Type 3 wildlife reserve trees are live or dead trees with unstable tops or upper portions. Unless approved by the landowner, only green trees with visible cavities, nests, or obvious severe defects capable of supporting cavity dependent species shall be considered as Type 3 wildlife reserve trees. Although the roots and main portion of the trunk are sound, these reserve trees pose high hazard because of the defect in live or dead wood higher up in the tree.

Type 4 wildlife reserve trees are live or dead trees with unstable trunks or roots, with or without bark. This includes "soft snags" as well as live trees with unstable roots caused by root rot or fire. These trees are unstable and pose a high hazard to workers.

In Western Washington, for each acre harvested 3 wildlife reserve trees, 2 green recruitment trees, and 2 down logs shall be left. Type 1 wildlife reserve trees may be counted either as a wildlife reserve tree or as a green recruitment tree. If adequate wildlife reserve trees are not available, no additional green recruitment trees will be required as substitutes. Landowners shall not under any circumstances be required to leave more than 2 green recruitment trees per acre for the purpose of wildlife reserve tree recruitment, or be required to leave Type 3 or 4 wildlife reserve trees.(WFPB, 1995)

Only those wildlife reserve trees 10 or more feet in height and 12 or more inches in dbh shall be counted toward wildlife reserve tree retention requirements. Green recruitment trees, 10 or more inches dbh and 30 or more feet in height with at least 1/3 of their height in live crown, left standing after harvest may be counted toward green recruitment tree requirements. Green recruitment trees and/or wildlife reserve trees left to meet other requirements of the rules or those left voluntarily by the landowner shall be counted toward satisfying the requirements of this section. Large, live defective trees with broken tops, cavities, and other severe defects are preferred as green recruitment trees. Only down logs with a small end diameter greater than or equal to 12 inches and a length greater than or equal to 20 feet or equivalent volume shall be counted under the first part of this section. Large cull logs are preferred as down logs.(WFPB, 1995)

In areas where wildlife reserve trees are left, the largest diameter wildlife reserve trees shall be retained to meet the specific needs of cavity nesters. Where the opportunity exists, larger trees with numerous cavities should be retained and count as recruitment trees.(WFPB, 1995)

In order to facilitate safe and efficient harvesting methods, wildlife reserve trees and recruitment trees may be left in clumps. For purposes of distribution, no point within the harvest unit shall be more than 800 feet from a wildlife reserve tree or green recruitment tree retention area. Subject to this distribution requirement, the location of these retention areas and the selection of recruitment trees shall be at the landowner's discretion. Closer spacing of retention areas through voluntary action of the landowner is encouraged. Wildlife reserve tree and green recruitment tree retention areas may include, but are not limited to, riparian management zones, riparian leave tree areas, other regulatory leave areas, or voluntary leave areas that contain wildlife reserve trees and/or green recruitment trees.(WFPB, 1995)

In order to provide for safety, landowners may remove any Type 3 or 4 wildlife reserve trees which poses a threat to humans working, recreating, or residing within the hazard area of that tree. In order to provide for fire safety, the distribution of wildlife reserve tree retention areas, described in the above paragraph, my be modified as necessary based on a wildlife reserve tree management plan proposed by the landowner and approved by the department of natural resources.(WFPB, 1995)

For more information on the Forest Practices Act you can check out the Washington Forest Practices Board.

Approximately 75% of the area of interest is dispersal habitat. Dispersal non-habitat is 25% of the total area and is an area that will never meet dispersal habitat requirements. Habitat Conservation Plan requires 50% of that 75% to be left dispersal habitat. The other 50% that will not be left as dispersal habitat and the 25% of dispersal non-habitat must follow the Forest Practices Act. See above requirements for the Forest Practices Act. Within the 50% of dispersal habitat the HCP requires that 40% of the canopy cover be left for potential spotted owl habitat. This means if we had a total of 100 trees in our 50% dispersal habitat area of interest, we are allowed to harvest 70 of those trees.

The entire 50% dispersal habitat in the area of interest falls under the sub-mature requirements. There are more than 30% conifers in the area of interest. Approximately 75% of the area is Douglas Fir, which is the primary species. We need to leave a tree density between 115-280 trees per acre all greater than 4" dbh. The majority of our area is over 145 trees per acre. Under the HCP requirements 70% canopy cover will be left for habitat. The dominant and co-dominant heights do not exceed 16". Therefore the 20' dbh requirement on dominant and co-dominant trees does not apply here. Last we need to allow for 5% ground cover of large woody debris.

The Washougal Watershed Unit has Type 1-5 streams. The height of the dominant trees in our watershed unit varies. On the Type 3 stream that flows through Section 8 the average dbh on the north side of the stream is 8" and the average dominant height is 122'. The south side of the stream the average dbh of dominant tress is 12" and the average height is 122'. According to the HCP this makes the stream buffers on this Type 1 stream equal to 122 feet. We will make the riparian buffer equal to 125' to include any unforeseen circumstances. The wind buffers are equal to 100 feet. The total width of the stream buffer zone on each side of the channel is 225 feet. The Type 1 stream that flows through Section 17 has an average dbh of 12" on the north side of the channel and 14" on the south side. The average dominant height is between 116' and 146'. For this area we will use 146' to determine the buffer on the riparian management zones. The riparian buffer on this Type 1 stream is 150 feet. The wind buffer is equal to 100'. The total riparian management zone buffer will be measured at 250 feet on both sides of the channel.

Under both the FPA and the HCP there are no restrictions for harvesting across the riparian management zones. Selective logging with a skyline cable logging system would be the best harvesting method/system to use in these riparian management zones. Full suspension logging would be the best for the riparian management zones because it would allow for the least amount of damage to stream banks and the buffer trees. To allow for the least amount of damage the logs need rigged for full suspension off the ground.

Bibliography:

Washington State Department of Natural Resources. 1997. Final Habitat Conservation Plan. Department of Natural Resource, Olympia.

Washington Forest Practices Board (WFPB). 1995. Washington Forest Practices Rules, WAC 222, Board Manual (watershed manual not included), Forest Practices Act, RCW 76.09. Washington Forest Practices Board, Olympia.