The Forests & Fish Law is a Landmark Salmon Recovery Plan

“The Forests & Fish Law is an historic, science-based set of forest practices regulations that protect 60,000 miles of streams running through 9.3 million acres of state and private forestland. In 2006, the Forests & Fish Law was endorsed by the federal government, through a statewide Habitat Conservation Plan. As one of the largest and most comprehensive pieces of environmental legislation in the U.S., the law is designed to fully comply with both the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA) to protect Washington’s native fish and aquatic species.

Washington has one of the Greatest Levels of Protection for Forested Streams in the U.S.
The Forests & Fish Law was developed in collaboration with federal, state, tribal, and county governments and private forest landowners. Representatives of these governments and organizations worked together for 18 months to make changes to the forest practices rules to protect clean water and riparian habitat on non-federal forestland in Washington State. Changes were made to improve forest roads and culverts, enlarge buffer zones along stream banks, and locate unstable slopes around the state. An adaptive management monitoring program has also been put into place to test the effectiveness of the new rules.”

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS PLAN? I DID NOT.

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