Forest Plan Implementation
Procedures and Tools
Legacy Forest Structure
The primary objective of the legacy standard is to provide for long-term old-growth representation at the landscape scale where future timber management will occur in areas that have had concentrated past timber harvest activity. For legacy, the landscape scale is considered to be at the value comparison unit, or VCU, scale. The majority of VCUs that include lands in the timber management land base have a high level of old-growth representation because of non-development LUDs and implementation of Forest Plan standards and guidelines. Of the hundreds of VCUs with scheduled timber harvest, 49 of them will require additional consideration under this standard to assure old-growth representation is maintained when even-aged harvesting is planned. These VCUs are areas that have had a higher level of past timber harvest and areas that are projected to have a higher level of harvest in the future. Appendix D of the 2008 Forest Plan Final EIS provides the background and science considerations that were used to guide the development of the legacy standard.
In the 49 VCUs, even-aged harvest units greater than 20 acres will retain at least 30% of the original unit as legacy forest structure. Major building blocks associated with the Forest Plan conservation strategy, such as beach buffers, major Class I and II streams associated with those harvest units will not count toward the legacy standard, but other areas associated with the ultimate design of the unit will count. Examples of areas retained for other reasons that count toward the legacy standard include oversteepened slopes, karst feature protections, Class III buffers, blind leads, and the extra retention provided in reasonable assurance of windfirmness (RAW) zones along protected streams(see the Forest white paper on RAW zone guidelines). The Legacy Posters linked below provide an illustrative example of the application of the legacy standard.
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Harvest Unit Without Legacy Standard
- This poster shows an example of an even-aged harvest unit after harvest, in the absence of the legacy standard (red dashed line is the original unit boundary). Although the legacy standard was not implemented, about 13% of the unit was retained because of retention on an unmapped unstable slope area, along two Class III streams, in a blind lead area, and an unharvested zone along the Class I stream at the bottom of the unit for the purpose of establishing a reasonable assurance of windfirmness (RAW) (see Riparian Forest-wide Standards and Guidelines RIP2).
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Harvest Unit With Legacy Standard
- This poster shows the same harvest unit after harvest, but with implementation of the legacy standard (same red dashed line is the original unit boundary). Legacy forest structure was added in the legacy opportunity zones by expanding the retention area around the unmapped unstable slope, building on the buffer along the internal Class III stream, expanding the area around the blind lead, and expanding a portion of the RAW zone along the Class I stream at the bottom of the unit. The legacy additions represent about 17% of the unit area and the unit now includes about 30% of its area in legacy forest structure.