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Legal and Economic Issues
In the United States, forest owners
have both private property rights and responsibilities towards
the rest of society. This sustainability criterion examines
the laws and policies regarding these rights and responsibilities.
Having many different forest owners
complicates things. The federal government, the state, American
Indian tribes, counties, the forest products industry, and
thousands of individual families all own large pieces of
Oregon's forests.
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(Click
to enlarge)
Map courtesy of the Northern Coast
Range Adaptive Management Area
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For example, this map shows the
patchwork pattern of ownerships in Oregon's Northern
Coast Range Adaptive Management Area.
Basically, one set of rules and
policies govern most federal lands (national forests,
Bureau of Land management, lands, national parks,
wildlife refuges) and some tribal forests. The Northwest
Forest Plan, adopted in 1994, currently emphasizes
a decrease in timber harvests and establishment of
"late-successional reserves" (these are
areas where conditions similar to old-growth forests
would be encouraged and maintained).
Other types of ownerships (state,
county, corporate, private, and some tribal forests)
are governed by the Oregon
Forest Practices Act. Oregon was the first state
to establish forest practice rules in 1971. The rules
are frequently updated as scientists make new discoveries
about how forests function.
Oregon's land use laws help conserve
forest lands and prevent them from being converted
to other uses.
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©2005 Oregon Forest Resources Institute. All Rights Reserved.