CENTRALIA — Weyerhaeuser Timber Holdings, Inc., has developed a safe harbor agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect marbled murrelets, a federally threatened seabird.
The draft agreement was released on Wednesday for a 30-day public comment period.
Safe harbor agreements are voluntary, non-regulatory agreements for private landowners who wish to support the recovery of plants and animals listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In exchange, the landowner receives assurances they will not be required to engage in new conservation efforts in the future.
A total of 637,021 acres of land located in Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, King, Pierce, Thurston, Lewis, Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, Pacific and Grays Harbor counties are proposed for inclusion in the agreement.
Under the proposed agreement, Weyerhaeuser will continue to continue managing its forest lands for timber production while voluntarily deferring timber harvests on land that is potential marbled murrelet nesting habitat.
The marbled murrelet, which spends most of its life in marine waters, was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1992. The bird is found along the Pacific Coast from Alaska to central California and nests in forests up to several dozen miles inland.
