Current Landscape Conditions Sample Clauses

Current Landscape Conditions. The Applicant’s forestlands are generally site class III forestlands located in the transitional forest zone of the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington. Forests in this area receive a high of 60 inches of rainfall per year in the western portions, to a low of 20 inches of rainfall per year in the eastern portions. The average rainfall on the covered lands is approximately 35 inches per year. Forests on Applicant’s lands are dominated by Xxxxxxx fir throughout the covered area, in both Oregon and Washington. Pure Xxxxxxx fir forest stands exist in the western and central areas of the covered lands while mixed Xxxxxxx fir, Grand fir and Ponderosa Pine forest stands exist in the eastern areas. For many decades, the Applicant’s forest management strategy was to practice long-rotation forestry, harvesting minimally to maintain forest health and allowing forest values to increase. The Applicant’s lands were reserved from harvest because other sources of logs were generally available for harvest. As a result of this strategy, the Applicant’s lands carry an inventory that is dominated by older forest age classes and larger diameter logs. Applicant’s covered lands in Washington are shown in Figures 3-3 and 3-4. Applicant’s covered lands in Oregon are in similar age class conditions. Applicant’s combined commercial forest acreage with stands over 40 years of age is approximately 50,000 acres, or 60% of the total. Thus, the condition of the Applicant’s forestlands is unusual among forest industry ownerships. In approximately 1998, driven in part by declining supply of logs from Federal, State and other private sources, the Applicant’s strategy changed to reduce total forest inventory and shorten the average rotation ages to be in line with industry standards. The principle reason behind this decision is the dwindling marketability of large diameter logs. As a result, the Applicants desire to achieve a lower average forest age with smaller average log diameters, gradually over the next several decades, in a manner that results in a desired age class distribution in the future. This conversion process, however, is being expedited due to regulatory risks that have been previously mentioned. Without the regulatory assurance of the SHA, the Applicants are driven to aggressively accelerate this conversion process to occur over the next decade. The result will be a rapid increase in the flow of harvested logs for a short period of time, which...