Group plans thinning, restoration around Packwood

Conventional knowledge, based on a couple decades of evidence, might indicate that environmentalists and lumber workers are diametrically opposed to one another on the subject of logging.

A project currently coming to fruition would appear to challenge that belief.

The Pinchot Partners, a collaborative group formed as a nonprofit three years ago, recently announced the completion of a plan to thin and restore 1,540 acres of federal lands outside of Packwood.

The group will hold an open house from 4 to 7 p.m. Sept. 10 at the Packwood Fire Hall to unveil the environmental assessment for the plan — dubbed the Plantation Restoration Project — and allow the public to ask questions and provide comments.

The 103-page document lays out the plans of the Partners, which includes representatives from labor groups, lumber mills and environmentalist groups. The plan, according to board member Lisa Moscinski, is to break the document up into several smaller contracts that would result in jobs for local residents and restored habitat for wildlife.

“We’ve definitely created a unique group,” said Moscinski, deputy director of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force. “It’s about building relationships and developing the common goals and creating habitat for terrestrial and aquatic wildlife.”

Randle resident Bill Little, a representative of the carpenter’s union on behalf of local lumber mills, said he has seen his union’s membership shrink from 1,100 to 200 over the years as logging has been halted for a number of reasons. He said the project holds potential to get local lumber mills moving again.

“We’re trying to get to some common ground so maybe we can generate some work for the area,” he said.

That common ground combines elements of habitat restoration with forest thinning, according to the environmental assessment.

Under the plan, about 1,360 acres would be commercially thinned while 180 acres of inner riparian reserve would receive non-commercial cut and leave thinning treatments where wood would be left on the ground. The project would also create snags, downed wood, and provide trees for future in-stream projects. Additional projects would include road obliteration, culvert replacements to improve fish habitat, and mapping and hand treatment of invasive weeds.

The stands in question are former clearcuts that were all harvested more than 40 years ago and have regrown into thick, woody mazes not necessarily prime for habitat, members of the group said.

Funding for the project would be provided by the sale of the commercially thinned timber. Moscinski said she hopes those contracts would help boost local employment while at the same time improving habitat.

“The goal is to create a stable supply of work for the local area,” said Moscinski. “We hit quite a few bumps in the road but I think we got a good planning document out of it.”

Lewis County Commissioner Lee Grose, who represents the eastern portion of the county, said any additional work for his district would be helpful. Still, he added that 1,540 acres is a “drop in the bucket” when compared with the 380,000 acres that comprise the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which has seen the amount of logging plummet due to restrictions in recent years.

He said any movement by the Forest Service toward restoring thinning and logging would be a positive development. While the unemployment rate in Lewis County as a whole hovers near 11 percent, Grose thinks that number is much higher in East Lewis County where lumber mills have been forced to layoff workers or shut down completely.

“I think it’s fairly evident that the unemployment rate gets higher the further east you go,” he said.

Catie Werner, a coordinator for the Pinchot Partners and its only paid employee, said that’s the main aim of the project — creating local jobs. She said the upcoming meeting in Packwood will be a good opportunity to share the plan with the public.

After a 30-day comment period, the organization plans to break the environmental assessment into several projects, most of which they hope to fund through the sale of timber harvested from the property.

“That is what they came together to do, to try and create jobs in the East County,” she said. “The open house is important. We’re trying to get as many of the potential partners there as possible.”

Read the Document

The environmental assessment for the “Plantation Restoration Project” is posted online at: http://www.chronlinemedia.com/plantation_restoration.pdf