Oregon Public Broadcasting

You might call it a "stay out of jail free" card for small-scale private timber owners in Oregon. 

A new agreement announced Friday means they can sign up to be exempt from future spotted owl regulations if they agree to give the birds more consideration right now.

The so-called "safe harbor" agreement works this way.

Private landowners agree to make life easier for the threatened Northern Spotted Owl. That could mean leaving more old-growth trees alone. Or it could mean providing fallen trees as habitat for rodents the disappearing owls love to feast on.

In exchange, forest owners like Johnny Sundstrom get what basically amounts to an insurance policy against change. Sundstrom co-owns a plot of timber in the Oregon Coast Range near Florence.

Johnny Sundstrom: "If in ten years the owl declines and there's a new set of regulations that come out that would perhaps prohibit some of the things we've signed in to, they would not affect our practices."

The safe harbor program is voluntary. This current offer is not open to large timber companies like Weyerhauser.

It's limited to a total of 50,000 acres in Oregon. Similar arrangements exist for smaller sections of forest in northern California and southwest Washington.

On the web:

Information about the safe harbor program