(1) Small forest landowners who own a total of eighty acres or less forest land in Washington state are not required to submit any road maintenance and abandonment plan for any block of forest land that contains twenty contiguous acres or less.

(2) Small forest landowners other than those described in subsection (1) of this section, are only required to submit a checklist road maintenance and abandonment plan when they submit a forest practices application or notification that includes timber harvest or salvage. The checklist must include all their forest roads that are used for the forest practice. Instead of a checklist, landowners may submit a road maintenance and abandonment plan as described in WAC 222-24-051 with the following modifications:

• They are not required to submit an annual report.

• If they participate in the family forest fish passage program, they may schedule their barrier projects accordingly.

(3) Forest roads must be maintained only to the extent necessary to prevent damage to public resources.

*(4) If the department determines that a road will cause or has the potential to cause damage to a public resource, the department may require the applicant to submit a compliance schedule of work to fix the problem(s) identified by the department.

(5) Fish passage barriers will be assessed on a watershed basis focusing on fixing the worst barriers first.

(a) The department's family forest fish passage program is available to assist with the removal, replacement, or repair of fish passage barriers that were installed prior to May 14, 2003. The program includes limits on landowner costs and the opportunity for in-kind contributions. One hundred percent public funding shall be provided if an existing barrier was installed under an approved forest practices application or a hydraulics project approval acquired prior to December 29, 2013, and that barrier becomes a high priority for replacement.

(b) Small forest landowners who participate in the family forest fish passage program are not required to remove, replace or repair barriers until cost share funding is available and higher priority barriers on lands within the watershed have been removed or funded. Small forest landowners participating in the program may make use of prioritization without any obligations to receive funding from the program.