The Nation's First Multi-Species HCP for a Forested Landscape

By Craig Hansen

On June 26, 1995, the Murray Pacific Corporation, a timber company based in Tacoma, Washington, signed a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) that may set a precedent for future large-scale species conservation agreements. This plan, the first multi-species HCP for a forested landscape, applies to all listed species that may occur on the company's land now and in the future. It is designed to protect vital habitat for these species while allowing continued timber harvest.

Under the terms of the HCP and its implementation agreement, Murray Pacific received an incidental take permit for currently listed species that may occur on its ownership for the next 100 years. The permit allows Murray Pacific to take listed species incidental to carrying out otherwise legal timber harvest activities. Additionally, the scope of the HCP is wide enough that, should any species occurring on Murray Pacific timberlands become listed in the future, the incidental take permit would be amended (at the company's request) to include the newly listed species. Thus, Murray Pacific has certainty that it can conduct timber harvest activities--as described in the HCP and the legally binding implementation agreement--for the next century without violating the ESA. This was the first such permit issued jointly by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) under section 10 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The new HCP is actually an amendment to an HCP Murray Pacific completed in September 1993 to obtain an incidental take permit for the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina). In order to conduct timber harvest activities around sites occupied by the owl, Murray Pacific created an HCP that, among other provisions, is designed to develop and maintain owl dispersal habitat across 43 percent of the 53,000-acre tree farm. This conservation strategy was consistent with the Northern Spotted Owl Draft Recovery Plan, which stressed the importance of creating dispersal habitat in this area to support owl nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat on adjacent National Forests.

As Murray Pacific completed action on the spotted owl HCP, the company learned that another bird dependent on mature forests, the marbled murrelet ( Brachyramphus marmoratus), had been listed as threatened. Although subsequent surveys revealed no murrelets on company lands, Toby Murray, the company's vice-president, became concerned about the potential need for additional HCPs if other species on Murray Pacific lands were to become listed in the future. His solution was to develop a multi-species HCP covering all listed species, and species that may be listed in the future, that occur on Murray Pacific timberlands. With this strategy, Murray Pacific could plan for the future and be assured of being able to continue its timber harvest activities without being unduly affected by the ESA.

A multi-species HCP is a plan developed to minimize, and mitigate to the maximum extent practical, incidental take of all listed species that may occur in the plan area. The needs of all other species for which an applicant desires coverage--such as a State or Federal species of concern--also must be addressed as if they were listed. This can best be accomplished by ensuring that adequate amounts of all habitat types within the HCP area are maintained.

Murray Pacific's HCP takes such a habitat-based approach. The company anticipated that by retaining and enhancing the habitat types that occur in the HCP area, it can provide for some needs of all the species that occur or are likely to occur on its lands. In addition to the conditions of the original spotted owl HCP, which are still in place, Murray Pacific's multi-species HCP provides for leaving at least 10 percent of its tree farm in non-harvest reserves for the next 100 years. The reserves will take the form of riparian buffers averaging at least 100 feet on each side of all fish-bearing streams. Murray Pacific's commitment to perform watershed analysis on over 98 percent of the HCP area is an important part of the plan. Management prescriptions resulting from this process will result in less erosion into fish streams and improve long-term conditions of riparian areas. This ensures that riparian ecosystems, areas that support the greatest species diversity and abundance, will be protected on Murray Pacific lands. Other provisions of the HCP ensure that all forest habitat types and age classes currently on the tree farm, as well as special habitat types such as talus slopes, caves, nest trees, and den sites, will be protected or enhanced. Murray Pacific will leave more snags and double the number of "green recruitment trees" (live trees left in place to provide seed and an uneven-growth forest structure in the future) per acre required by Washington Forest Practices Regulations.

In addition to the broad approach, Murray Pacific has addressed the specific habitat needs of species of concern. Some of these measures include protection of talus slopes and green recruitment trees to maintain environmental conditions required by the Larch Mountain salamander (Plethodon larselli), a species of concern; protecting snags occupied by Vaux's swift (Chaetura vauxi), a State candidate species, and leaving green recruitment trees around the snags where practical; protecting up to 5 cave openings occupied by indigenous bat species by retaining trees around each entrance; protection of bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), osprey (Pandion haliaetus), and goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) nest trees; and seasonal protection of grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), gray wolf (Canis lupus), California wolverine (Gulo gulo luteus), and Pacific fisher (Martes pennanti pacifica) den sites, should they be found on Murray Pacific's ownership. Moreover, to minimize disturbance to all wildlife, the company limits access to the tree farm.

The currently listed species that are covered by Murray Pacific's HCP and incidental take permit include four threatened animals--the owl, murrelet, bald eagle, and grizzly bear--and the endangered gray wolf. Many of the conservation measures specified in the agreement are predicated on the chance that these species may occur on Murray Pacific ownership at some time in the future. Although the parties involved in negotiating the HCP acknowledge that it could not be all things to all species, they agree that the plan and its implementation agreement provide the best conservation attainable given the habitat resources present and the fact that these forest lands are expected to realize some economic return.

Murray Pacific's decision to engage in a multi-species HCP was voluntary, and was influenced by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's "No Surprises" policy. This policy, issued in August 1994, states that once an HCP has been approved and is functioning as intended, the FWS (or NMFS) will not require the landowner to provide additional land or financial compensation in the future to mitigate unforeseen circumstances. If mitigation measures beyond those specified in the HCP subsequently are deemed necessary, the primary obligation for such measures would rest with the agency, not the HCP permittee.

This certainty, also known as the "A Deal is a Deal" policy, is what makes HCPs inviting to landowners. They can conduct their normal activities according to the provisions of the HCP without having to be concerned about violating the ESA. At the same time, the landowners make a commitment to continue their conservation efforts throughout the life of the HCP, thereby contributing to the viability of ecosystems at the landscape level. As Toby Murray put it, "There is no doubt in my mind that we have done the right thing--the right thing for the Murray Pacific Corporation and the right thing for fish and wildlife."