Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

authority of the public body to enter into land exchanges, 4) the change inpublic timber supply as a result of the exchange, 5) effect on local taxbase, 6) the willingness of nonfederal landowners to enter into exchanges,and 7) the timing of the exchange.8. Purchase. Purchase of fee title of private or state lands for reasons similarto land exchange. Purchase must be evaluated on 1) the authority of thepublic sector to purchase private or state land, 2) the availability ofresources for public purchase, 3) the willingness of the nonfederal partiesto sell, 4) the change in public timber supply as a result of the purchase,5) effect on local tax base, 6) the timing of the purchase, 7) whetherpurchase is of both land or timber or whether some harvest rights areretained by seller.9. Timber rights trade. Rather than purchasing or exchanging land, federaland nonfederal parties exchange timber cutting rights without alteringland ownership. This should be evaluated in the same way as landpurchase or exchange. Legal technicalities may need to be addressed.10. Conservation easements, mitigation banks, purchase or transfer of developmentor harvest rights. A number of 'market-oriented" tools are availablefor protective management. These tools are characterized by beingvoluntary, rather than mandatory, and allow all parties involved to basetheir decisions on the likely costs and benefits they will incur. Theavailability of these tools increases the options for efficiently meetingconservation goals.A conservation easement is dedicated for conservation purposes, such asopen space or wildlife habitat. The landowner is compensated for placingland in an easement, often through preferential property tax treatment.The feasibility of conservation easements must be evaluated in terms of 1)the availability of suitable areas for easements, 2) the ability to administerthe easements, such as the existence of land trusts, and 3) the relativebenefits that a landowner could expect from entering into a conservationeasement.Mitigation banking is an offsite mitigation tool intended to compensate forhabitat losses associated with future timber harvesting or other activities.Credits must be established (e.g., acres of owl habitat) prior to timberharvesting. The intent of mitigation banking is to develop a surplus ofsecured habitat before timber harvesting proceeds in existing suitablehabitat to minimize the lag time between losses from timber harvestingand replacement from mitigation. Mitigation banking can consolidatemitigation measures from numerous small habitat losses and provide alarger off-site mitigation area.The feasibility of mitigation banks must be evaluated based on 1) theavailability of suitable sites for mitigation banks that would not have beenprotected otherwise, 2) the ability to establish appropriate measure ofcredits, 3) the institutional ability to administer the banks and monitortheir effectiveness.Transfer of development or harvest rights is another mechanism to allowhigher levels of activity, such as timber harvesting, on location (destinationor sink) by transferring unused rights from another location (source),thereby reducing the potential level of activities in the source location.Purchase of such rights can be used to lower the overall potential level oftimber harvesting in an area by not transferring them to another location.136