Service Contracting, Local Benefit, and the Northwest Forest Plan

2 p.The Northwest Forest Plan and associated Northwest Economic Adjustment Initiative called for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to assist rural communities with long-term economic development and diversification to mitigate the loss of timber jobs that resulted from implementation of the Plan. One way this was to be accomplished was through the contracting of forest restoration and maintenance activities associated with ecosystem management. The hope was that new management priorities would create business and employment opportunities for rural, public lands communities