Partners plea case for Malheur Forest funding
JOHN DAY - Grant County forest advocates traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah, this week to make the case for funding a decade of restoration work on the Malheur National Forest.
Their aim is to convince the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program Advisory Committee to advance a proposal from two collaborative groups on the Malheur. The Blue Mountains Forest Partners and the Harney County Restoration Collaborative submitted a proposal outlining an array of restoration and forest work that could be done over the next 10 years.
In its Oct. 18-20 meeting, the advisory committee will evaluate all the proposals for funding The panel then recommends its selections to the Secretary of Agriculture.
Making the trip for the Blue Mountains Partners are Grant County Judge Mark Webb and attorney Susan Jane Brown, both original participants in the collaborative. Malheur Forest employees Curt Qual and Roy Walker also were expected to attend the meeting.
Webb said the joint proposal outlines a 10-year plan of restoration work focused primarily on the southern portion of the Malheur National Forest, he said.
"At stake is approximately $2.5 million per year for 10 years, which if awarded would significantly ramp up local restoration efforts the forest and area communities desperately need," he said.
The CFLR program was established in 2009 to encourage collaborative, science-based restoration of national forest lands, on a landscape scale.
It also seeks to encourage ecological, economic and social sustainability; to leverage local resources with national and private ones; and to reduce wildfire costs by re-establishing natural fire cycles and reducing the risk of catastrophic fires.
Forest Forum hosts environmental and industry collaborators ...
Forest Forum welcomes the employees of the environment and industry
The recent meeting Amador-El Dorado Forest Forum of the Institute of Forest Genetics in Camino featured a spaghetti dinner house and a trio of speakers on the topic of preparing the region for five forest plan revisions.
In recent years, the U.S. Forest Service held meetings on individual forests for public comment on the actions of the proposed project to update the forest management framework from the 2001 and 2004 the Sierra Nevada.
In 2009 Congress established the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program under an omnibus land management act. The program is intended to “encourage the collaborative, science-based ecosystem restoration of priority forest landscapes. Its aims include encouraging using forest restoration byproducts to offset treatment costs and to benefit local rural economies.
In May Region 5, the Pacific Southwest Region (California, Hawaii and U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands), published “Region 5 Ecological Restoration: Leadership Intent.” The paper identifies major contributors to change: 1) climate change; 2) shifting hydrologic patterns; 3) increasing dense and unhealthy forests; 4) growing human populations. The result is forests that are over-allocated and ecosystems, especially water, that are undervalued; wildfires; floods; invasive species; and declining rural economies.
It states, “Our ecological restoration work will include coordination and support for all wildlands and forests in the region to promote an ‘all lands approach’ to restoration. It will lead to a new way of doing business with our partners and neighbors, to coordinate work and priorities across forests and wildlands regardless of ownership.”
Steps in collaborative decision-making
Debra Whitall is the social science point person for Region 5. With a degree in Resource Planning and Interpretation, she worked for the Forest Service for 20 years as a hydrologist and public policy analyst. In 2007, she earned a PhD in Public Administration and Policy from Portland State University, and in 2009 she became a Senior Executive Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She has been the social scientist for the region since 2008. In a telephone interview, she said her goal has been to put social science theories into practice.