Plum
Creek Timber Company’s Draft Native Fish Habitat Conservation Plan
Sugden, B.D. and Jostrom, M.D.
Plum Creek Timber Company, PO Box 1990, Columbia Falls, MT 59912
Abstract: Plum Creek Timber Company owns approximately 8% of
the Clark Fork River Basin. Management
of this forestland is governed by Plum Creek’s Environmental Principles and
the standards of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)SM Program.
Protecting water quality and fish habitat is a cornerstone of all Plum
Creek operations. In a cooperative
partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine
Fisheries Service, Plum Creek is preparing a Native Fish Habitat Conservation
Plan (NFHCP). This plan would
conserve habitat for 18 fish species (including bull trout and westslope
cutthroat) on 1.6 million acres of Plum Creek land in Montana, Idaho, and
Washington. This includes 1.1 million acres tributary to the Clark Fork
River. This is the first Habitat
Conservation Plan to be developed in Montana and Idaho.
If approved, the NFHCP would be the basis for a 30-year incidental take
permit to be issued to Plum Creek under the Endangered Species Act.
Development of the NFHCP has taken two years and involved over a dozen
scientists to prepare 13 peer-reviewed technical reports.
The NFHCP includes 53 individual commitments by Plum Creek in seven broad
conservation categories, including: road and upland management, riparian
management, legacy and restoration, land use planning, grazing management,
administration and implementation, and adaptive management.
A Draft NFHCP and Environmental Impact Statement were made available for
public review earlier this year, and over 1200 individual comments were
received. Comments are presently
being analyzed and the NFHCP will be finalized later this year.
For more information on the Plan, click on the following links: http://www.plumcreek.com
or http://www.fws.gov/r1srbo/SRBO/PlumCk.htm