| Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition |
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Objective: The coalition has four main objectives: to design and implement forest restoration and fuels reduction projects by using innovative approaches to forestry; to demonstrate how a diverse coalition of stakeholders can work together to promote forest restoration and protect communities from wildfire; to educate the public about the ecological and socio-economic benefits of forest restoration and fuels reduction; and to develop models that can be emulated in other regions of the country. Participants: Owners and employees of Vaagen Bros. sawmill in Colville, Wash.; Conservation Northwest, formerly the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance; 49 Degrees ski area; The Lands Council; the U.S. Forest Service; Washington Department of Natural Resources; Poderay Newsprint; Avista Utilities; Chewelah Peak Learning Center; Boise Paper; Columbia Cedar; Ferry and Stevens county conservation districts; Washington State University Extension Office; loggers; local business owners; and citizens at large. History: Jim Doran, former mayor of Twisp, Washington—a town of around 1,000 people that was hit hard when the local mill shut down in 1984—was involved in several subsequent economic revitalization efforts. He and others began to envision good-paying jobs coming from forest restoration work and wildfire protection—essentially thinning the dense stands in the Okanagan and Colville national forests and sending the wood to local mills. "It was the 1994 Tyee fire, 354,000 acres, that woke me up," Doran said. "Instead of spending $300 million to put fire out and minimally restoring the area, why don't we look at restoring the forest so it doesn't burn up?" He spearheaded the Small-Diameter Wood Initiative in 1999 on the Okanagan National Forest, which eventually evolved into the Colville Community Forestry Coalition in 2002. The group has now expanded again and changed its name to the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, and is attempting to entice people working on national forests in northern Idaho to join forces as well. Anyone can join the group, but they must agree to two main principles: no logging of old growth and no new roads. In fact, the coalition often works to eliminate old roads.
The coalition also works to secure grants to help communities fund Wildfire Protection Plans. The Forest Service will prioritize thinning around communities that have developed these plans. The local sawmill in Colville, Wash. specializing in small logs has been very active in the coalition. "There's an opportunity to thin the forest here in a way that's environmentally sound and also, with the material that would be generated from those thinnings, to reduce the wildfire danger and to improve wildlife habitat, and support our local economy by keeping our mill running with a solid supply of material, which is a constant challenge these days," said Russ Vaagen of Vaagen Bros. sawmill. Accomplishments: The coalition's first success came with the Quartzite project, which resulted in 10 million board feet being cut from 5,000 acres of the Colville National Forest. What had been a controversial project was ushered through without litigation or appeal, said Tim Coleman of Conservation Northwest. "We did it by laying maps out on the table, and discussing the virtues of each alternative. And what we found is that we had a lot in common. We wanted to see a lot of the same things," Coleman said, including trees left standing, thinning near homes, and thinning near a ski area to reduce the risk of fire burning the ski area. Another success story is the Deadman Project, where the coalition did the same thing, laid out maps and took field trips. Originally, environmentalists opposed the Deadman Project, so the coalition came up with another alternative that the Forest Service eventually agreed to, Doran said. Doran is also proud of the Community Wildfire Protection Plans developed in Chewelah, Wash. and the lower Kettle River. "Those are great stories because we created the plan, we had a lot of contact with the local residents and produced the plan and actually were granted National Fire Plan funding to do the work on the individual homes. None of the fire plan work—or the collaboration in general—would be possible without funding received from the National Forest Foundation and many local contributors," Doran said. In addition the Forest Service is thinning in the area. In total, 4,000 acres will be thinned. Upcoming projects will be even grander. Doran has his eyes on a stewardship contract that might aim to thin 75,000 acres in Pend O'Reille County over several years.
Challenges/constraints: The effort does not come without challenges. Many participants said the Forest Service has been slow to respond to the coalition's ideas. In the early stages of the coalition, Coleman said the Forest Service was not just intractable but sometimes counterproductive. "The Forest Service's process is not extremely friendly to this sort of collaboration. I think very quickly the industry side found common ground with the conservation side. But the Forest Service wasn't really prepared for that sort of quick agreement and, in fact, we found they were actually playing us against each other for awhile," Coleman said. Colville Forest Supervisor Rick Brazell said collaboration among stakeholders is a new way of doing things in the Forest Service. "It's difficult for any large agency to start adapting to a new philosophy," he said. But the coalition has Brazell's support. "I buy into it 100 percent. The bureaucracy has to adapt to this kind of collaboration or we won't survive in the future. I really believe that," he said. Another constraint is that for the coalition to be successful, it's critical to have a small-diameter sawmill in the area, said Doran. The coalition has that in Vaagen Bros. "He can make two-by-fours out of these four-inch trees," Doran said. The coalition also runs into problems finding funding to plan small-diameter timber sales. Currently, stewardship authorities allow the agency to trade trees for services like riparian restoration and road maintenance, but not operations and planning costs. For more information see: Conservation Northwest-NEW Forestry Coalition Overview Collaboration: A Western Rural Revolution
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 11 April 2008 ) | |||||||||
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