Protecting Old Growth And Other Non Timber Forest Values In Idahos State Forests

Managing old growth forests on state trust lands in Idaho calls for an integrated "policy sciences" approach for balancing the Idaho Constitution's mandate to "maximize long term financial returns" with social and environmental values. This problem is addressed by considering management alternatives in their social and decision contexts using multiple methods appropriate for the problem situation. The amount of forests with old growth characteristics varies by definition. For example, between one and thirty percent of the 184,035 acre Priest Lake Supervisory Area could be considered old growth. Understanding the social, political, ecological, and economic factors associated with the management of state trust lands was enhanced by studying old growth policies on state trust lands in Montana, Washington, and Oregon, and interviewing managers and environmental group stakeholders. Their perceptions of ecological, social, and economic risks were used to design a systematic framework for analyzing old growth management strategies using risk factors with spatial attributes in existing data bases. Study results indicate that to support old growth forest management on state trust lands in Idaho, a two-phased analysis is needed to identify: (1) the financial feasibility of timber management alternatives within a given stand, and (2) the social, ecological, and economic risk factors associated with individual stands. Phase one analyzes five alternatives by projecting fixture timber resources, visualizing results and comparing opportunity costs. For phase two, maps were created to display the interplay of risk factors, including prior or planned timber management, scenic viewsheds, and fish and wildlife habitat. These risk maps can help decision makers compare timber management options with social values, and also identify levels of controversy for each old growth stand. Such maps illustrate the utility of visual products, and the need for better forest inventory data to do meaningful analysis and establish monitoring baselines for social, environmental, and economic performance measures. The integrated mapping process can be adapted to other resource management issues with temporal and spatial dimensions. The resulting analysis of social, economic, and ecological risk factors can help policy makers and managers make sustainable resource management decisions.