6/11/2024
Oregon / Washington – Official Release: The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service is investing more than $1.2 million in five projects across the Pacific Northwest Region to restore tribal, state and private forestlands.
Landscape Scale Restoration Program investments directly support the agency’s efforts to confront the ongoing wildfire crisis, while providing critical support to landowners across management jurisdictions as they work to promote healthy, productive forests that are resilient to the effects of climate change.
“These are great projects that were developed collaboratively with local partners who have critical local knowledge of these landscapes,” said Jacque Buchanan, Pacific Northwest Regional Forester for the USDA Forest Service.
Forest health issues like fire, disease, and insects are not bound by land ownerships, management boundaries, or political jurisdictions, she said.
“We’re working with communities on science-based, locally guided projects aligned with our shared goal to conserve and protect America’s State, Tribal, private and federal forest lands,” Buchanan said.
Nationally, the Forest Service announced it will invest $13 million in competitive grants through the Landscape Scale Restoration program this year.
Of the total funding, $1.5 million will support five projects for federally recognized tribes, including more than $588K for a project with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in Oregon and a project with Snoqualmie Indian Tribe in Washington.
“Catastrophic wildfires and invasive species know no boundary. That’s why we are taking an all-lands, all-hands approach and investing in healthy and resilient forests across management jurisdictions,” said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. “These grants directly support our Wildfire Crisis Strategy efforts to improve the health of forests that communities depend on for clean water, recreation, and the resources that drive local economies.”
In the Pacific Northwest Region, the projects selected for funding are:
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde:
Project: Ecocultural Oak Forest Management with Fire
- Awarded: $298,495
- Summary: This project aims to reintroduce indigenous fire usage to 330 acres of Tribally managed oak woodland and oak savanna. Use of fire in these areas is expected to increase habitat complexity, stimulate growth of fire-adapted culturally significant species such as camas and white oak acorns. Fire is also expected to increase the opportunity to seed additional culturally significant species thereby increasing the availability of cultural resources for gathering and food security within the community. The Tribe aims to create additional opportunities for interested Tribal members to engage with Cultural fire through this project.
Snoqualmie Indian Tribe:
Project: Snoqualmie Tribe Ancestral Landscape Restoration–Inter-agency fire management coordination with indigenous knowledge
- Awarded: $289,972
- Summary: Located on the west slopes of the Cascade Mountains in the upper Tolt and Snoqualmie River drainages, the project area is within the ancestral lands of the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe, including the 12,000-acre Snoqualmie Tribe Ancestral Forest. Large sections of forest in this landscape are owned by federal, state, and local governments. Project funds will support a new multi-agency Fire Management Coordinator, to bring together forest landowners to identify opportunities to collectively reduce the risk and severity of wildfires across the landscape.
Oregon:
Project: Oak Resiliency Project
- Awarded: $71,992
- Summary: This project will focus on oak restoration and native oak habitat conservation on private lands by helping landowners develop oak habitat management plans on 365-acres. These plans will guide landowners in oak management and qualify them for funding to support restoration activities. The Oregon Department of Forestry partners with Long Tom Watershed Council, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Oregon State University Extension to support collaborative oak landscape management goals at the landowner level.
Washington:
Project: Trail (Sxwuytn)
- Awarded: $300,000
- Summary: This project will accelerate the implementation of fuels reduction on private lands in Pend Oreille County to reduce risk of catastrophic wildfire and create healthy, resilient forests. The project will address the State’s Forest Action Plan goals while funding treatment on 280 acres of private land and leveraging 32,000 acres of treatment on federal and tribal land.
Project: Spokane Post-fire
- Awarded: $277,361
- Summary: This project is key to giving private landowners the tools and resources they need to address post fire recovery in Washington where current state and county resources are unable to address the immense recovery needs of those impacted by recent fires. This highly collaborative project will integrate environmental justice and science-based forest restoration strategies on 450 acres, working with at least 20 impacted landowners and community partners as they plan ahead and rebuild from the fire.
Between 2018 and 2023, the Forest Service awarded 315 competitive grants to support projects in 47 states and five territories for a total of $78.2 million dollars in federal funding.
A complete list of funded Landscape Scale Restoration projects for Fiscal Year 2024 is available here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/private-land/landscape-scale-restoration/funded-projects.
For a link to this release and more news & information about National Forests in the Pacific Northwest, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/news/r6/news-events.
For more information about the Forest Service visit https://www.fs.usda.gov.
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