Common use of Project Area Location Clause in Contracts

Project Area Location. To address spotted owl conservation and sustainable forestry issues, the Applicants and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have been engaged in a collaborative effort to develop a Safe Harbor Agreement (SHA) covering the Applicants’ forestlands in south-central Washington and north-central Oregon. The purpose of this collaboration, underway since early 2011, has been to develop a conservation strategy with a landscape approach that accommodates the Applicants’ desire to manage a sustainable forest in an economically viable manner while conserving the spotted owl according to Forest Practices Rules, as well as the ESA. The Applicants’ landscape management approach contributes to owl recovery by complementing the existing owl landscape management strategies on adjacent federal and state forestlands. With the Applicants’ participation in spotted owl conservation, it will be the first time in these SOSEAs, that a private landowner will join state and federal land managers to implement a landscape approach for spotted owl habitat. Under the SHA, the Applicants propose to implement conservation measures that will provide immediate net benefits to the owls in the first year of the SHA as well as over the term of the SHA. This SHA will allow the Applicants to conduct future forest management activities in a predictable manner with the knowledge that future federal actions under the ESA will not result in additional restrictions to these activities.