State Trust Lands Habitat Conservation Plan
Marbled murrelet habitat conservation Strategy
We are in the midst of a lengthy process to develop a long-term conservation strategy for the marbled murrelet in DNR-managed forests in Western Washington—under our state trust lands Habitat Conservation Plan.
DNR’s trust lands Habitat Conservation Plan is an agreement with two federal agencies—the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries—that helps DNR protect species listed as at some risk of extinction. Such species are protected through landscape level conservation strategies.
When the HCP was signed in 1997, managers had insufficient information to create a long-term conservation strategy for the marbled murrelet. Murrelet ecology and habitat use were not well understood, particularly related to nesting habitat in DNR-managed forests. To address this, the HCP specified an interim strategy be implemented while we conducted inventories and research to support a long-term strategy. DNR now has enough information to begin this long-term strategy for four of the six Western Washington HCP Planning Units: Straits, Olympic Experimental State Forest, South Coast, and Columbia.
Public Participation
In the coming years there will be many opportunities for public involvement in this process. The resulting strategy will conserve and create marbled murrelet habitat, while also allowing timber harvesting and other land management activities—activities that earn revenue for public schools and other beneficiaries and protect recreation and other public values.
Public environmental review will meet both the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements (see below).
Marbled Murrelet Science Team Report - September 2008
DNR's marbled murrelet science team is made up of external and DNR scientists that have worked since 2004 to compile expert opinion, research, data and analysis on marbled murrelet conservation. This final report includes recommendations for the management of marbled murrelet habitat in DNR-managed forests in southwest Washington and on the Olympic Peninsula. This report supplies a landscape-level examination of conservation opportunities for DNR to consider in their crafting of a long-term conservation strategy. It includes the definition of appropriate biological goals for habitat conservation, an evaluation and rationale for important landscapes supporting those biological goals, and some preliminary analysis to demonstrate tools for DNR to use in evaluating alternative approaches to a strategy.
Report, by Chapter
PLEASE NOTE: the March 2008 version has been replaced with this final version, dated September 2008. If you printed the March version, you can update it to the September version by downloading the errata document and replacing updated pages in the March version. The errata document is a compilation of only those pages that have changed since the March version.
NEPA/SEPA Environmental Review
USFWS and DNR held a public scoping period in fall 2006 to provide information and an opportunity to comment. We held a series of four public meetings in Forks, Mt. Vernon, South Bend and Lacey. Details on the project and the scoping process can be found within the NEPA Notice of Intent and SEPA Scoping Notice.
We propose to release a draft environmental impact statement (Draft EIS) in 2010 and a Final EIS by 2011. USFWS and DNR will solicit comments after the Draft EIS is released, and again after releasing the Final EIS.
DNR will address questions and concerns throughout this whole process, and encourages interested parties to contact us.
Additional Reference
Photo credit: Nick Hatch, USFS PNW Research Station