Site Map

PLUM CREEK LAND EXCHANGE - ECOSYSTEM DIMENSIONS

One of the motivations for the forest service to exchange land was to reduce fragmentation of I-90 corridor, or so called Mountain to Sound Greenway. The I-90 corridor has a checkerboard pattern of public and private land ownership. Much of the private land is owned by Plum Creek and has been managed for timber. The public lands are owned by the forest service and are managed for multiple uses - timber production, recreation, wildlife habitat, etc. In recent years, the forest service, recognizing that the resources it manages do not follow ownership boundaries and are interdependent, has followed a policy of ecosystem management.

A main concern of the forest service is to reduce fragmentation of forest ownership and forest types. The fragmented land ownership pattern and the resulting patchwork of forest ages and structures has consequences for wildlife, water quality, and aesthetics.

A major source of contention of the land exchange as it was authorized in 1998 was the inclusion of Watch Moutain in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest near the town of Randle, to be traded to Plum Creek Timber. The Watch Mountain tract contained "old growth" forest, which environmentalists and some local residents did not want to be harvested.

Watch Mountain Forest

Ecosystems or Plant Associations involved in the Plum Creek Exchange