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Working Together for ForestRestoration in the Northwest

Founded in 1995, Lomakatsi Restoration Project is a nonprofit organization that designs and implements ecological restoration projects in damaged forests and watersheds throughout southern Oregon and northern California. Lomakatsi has helped restore ecological balance across thousands of acres of public and private lands while training and employing hundreds of local workers, including youth, through its Youth Ecosystem Training and Employment

Program. The USDA Forest Service has been working with this non-profit organization for the past seven years, striving to accomplish forest restoration, watershed protection, and more. Both organizations embrace a collaborative approach to forest management, working together with a broad range of partners that includes private landowners, industry, land conservancies, city and park municipalities, Native American tribes, and government agencies. That approach, an essential element of any and all Forest Service projects, has yielded dividends through multiple successes across several diverse projects.

Ashland Forest Resiliency Master Stewardship Agreement

In early 2010 the Forest Service, City of Ashland, Lomakatsi Restoration Project, and The Nature Conservancy established a collaborative partnership to reduce hazardous fuel loads, diminish the risk of severe wildfire, and increase the forests’ resilience within the Ashland Municipal Watershed. In accomplishing these goals, this partnership will ultimately protect people, communities, property, forests, wildlife—and the city’s water supply. Approximately 7,600 acres will be treated within the city’s watershed in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Such treatments will be accomplished by applying controlled burns and by thinning the forests via

A team implementing work plans on the Boulder Stewardship Demonstration Project.

One of this project’s active fuel treatments.

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the removal of densely grown trees and vegetation. Approximately 2.7 million board feet—or the equivalent of 700 log trucks—was generated during the summer and fall of 2012 alone through both ground based and helicopter logging A $6.2 million investment is being provided to this 10-year project through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Wild Rivers Master Stewardship Agreement

Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Siskiyou Project and the Forest Service entered into a ten year, ten-thousand acre Master Cost-Share Stewardship Agreement (MSA) in 2008. Through community collaboration and local capacity, this agreement is designed to achieve a variety of goals on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, including ecological restoration, climate change resiliency, and reduced risk of wildfire. The first project under this MSA is the Hope Mountain Stewardship Project located within the headwaters of the Wild and Scenic Illinois River. Forest restoration activities there are aimed at reducing fuel hazards and enhancing species diversity on approximately 1,300 acres. These activities were carefully planned and combined with other techniques to try and enhance and accelerate old growth forest characteristics within the area, allowing the ecosystem to support a greater diversity of plants and wildlife. This restoration work was completed with help of 130 local forest workers and timber operators who received training and employmentent as part of their participation in this project. The realization of these employment opportunities helped this project and MSA achieve a primary goal—job creation.

Boulder Stewardship Demonstration Project

Beginning in May 2006, the Forest Service and Lomakatsi Restoration Project entered into a partnership agreement on the Umpqua National Forest. The partnership quickly became an excellent example of how collaboration can lead to successful forest restoration through the use of a local, rural workforce. Lomakatsi Restoration Project facilitated a workforce training program and hired local forest workers and loggers to accomplish fuel hazard reduction and density thinning. This project produced 276,000 board feet of Douglas fir sawlogs, which were sold to an industrial sawmill in a nearby community. In addition, 288 tons of biomass were generated as a restoration by-product and net

more than $10,000. By successfully selling this material, the Forest Service was able to highlight both the value of small-diameter logs and a potential use in the commercial market.

Fremont-Winema Master Stewardship Agreement

After nearly a year of meetings and development work, this partnership recently negotiated and signed a 10-year Master Stewardship Agreement that will allow projects to be developed across the forest. Through this agreement, partners—including the Klamath Tribes, Lomakatsi Restoration Project, The Nature Conservancy and the Fremont-Winema National Forest—are able to contribute expertise, resources, and non-federal matching funds to accomplish the shared goals of forest restoration, watershed restoration and tribal job development. Work done through this agreement will reduce excessive fuel loads; decrease the risk of uncharacteristically severe wildfire, insect infestation, and disease and invasive species; and strengthen the forest’s ability to withstand challenges associated with climate change.

Sawlogs prepared for sale to a local industrial