Partnership draws on ranching, timber, and conservation interests

New initiative aims at ‘balance’

A partnership of conservationists, timber industry leaders, recreationists and ranchers announced last week a new initiative aimed at a balance of recreation, sustainable use of resources and protection of special places that are important to the local economy and culture.

The initiative, unveiled at a gathering of local business and community leaders, seeks to increase recreation opportunities, sustain working ranches and jobs in the woods and protect sensitive wildlife habitat in the Columbia Highlands region of Northeast Washington.

Over the last eight years, timber industry and conservation leaders, collaborating through the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, have produced a national success story in simultaneously advancing forest stewardship and timber harvest on the Colville National Forest.

The Columbia Highlands Initiative, led by Conservation Northwest and The Lands Council, seeks to extend that collaborative success by promoting thoughtful recreation access, sustaining working ranches and advancing a plan for national forest management that includes a balance of uses, including new wilderness areas.

“The pressures and changes of the modern world require us to take a new, collaborative approach to conserving our wildlife, natural areas, and traditional rural lifestyles,”  said Tim Coleman of Conservation Northwest.  “We can’t do it without working together on the big picture: maintaining wildlife pathways and healthy forests also means that we need to maintain our timber jobs and the large habitat-rich ranches.

Collaborative effort

The key elements of the group’s proposal includes the designation of new national conservation, national recreation and wilderness areas in the Colville National Forest; support for ongoing national forest stewardship projects, and collaborative work with ranchers, including raising private funds for easements, to keep several key ranches in operation for cattle production and that provide essential habitat for wildlife.

Ultimately, formal designation of Wilderness, National Conservation Areas and National Recreation Areas will require an act of Congress.

“We’re deeply appreciative that members of our state’s congressional delegation, particularly Senator Cantwell and Rep. McMorris Rodgers, have been closely following our outreach efforts,”  said Coleman.  “They have consistently voiced their support for our consensus-building approach.  We look forward to working with them on our ultimate goal of moving legislation through Congress.”

“My grandfather started our family milling business and my dad followed in his footsteps and I now follow his,”  said Russ Vaagen, manager of Vaagen Bros. Lumber.  “Community collaboration has worked for our business, and in these tough economic times, that has helped keep our work force on the job.  There’s an acceptable balance in both sustaining jobs in the woods and protecting some special places.”

Some local ranchers have gotten involved in the effort because they recognize that changes to the land threaten their cattle business and the open spaces that enhance their lifestyle.  They are collaborating with conservation groups to permanently commit key ranches to agriculture, open space and wildlife habitat, preventing real estate and mining developments that break up operations and harm the natural and agricultural heritage.

“When the property around us starts growing houses instead of grass and trees, that hurts us and the wildlife,”  said Ferry County rancher Bryan Gotham.  “This partnership is helping us keep the land the way it was in my grandfather’s time, with a quiet backcountry that we can access by horse and a means to keep our ranch economically viable so I can pass it on to my children when the time comes.”

Increased recreation access and tourism

The Columbia Highlands Initiative also aims to increase recreation access and tourism in the region by convincing Congress to pass legislation that would establish National Recreation Areas, National Conservation Areas and new trails for mountain bikes and off-road vehicles.  New wilderness areas proposed in the package would also be an added tourism draw to the region.

“We want a balance where wildlife and wildlands can contribute economically,”  says John Eminger, owner of 49 Degrees North Ski Area and a partner in the effort.  “Wildlife and wilderness is an important part of the overall reason why people enjoy coming to recreate here.  We want it to stay that way.”

Wilderness is seen by many traditional backcountry enthusiasts who enjoy the slower, quiet pace of hiking and horseback riding as a way to keep a little piece of Northeast Washington the way it’s always been.  Many hunters also see wilderness as a way to maintain opportunities for pursuing deer, elk, bear and other game away from roads and crowds where hunting success can be greater and the size of some game bigger.

“Wilderness areas ensure that those of us who prefer putting in the effort for a traditional hunt on foot or horseback will still have places like the Kettle Crest or Salmo Priest area to share with our children and grandchildren, even with ever-expanding development pressures,”  said Joe Mirasole, a resident of Elk, and Chair of the Washington chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

The northeast corner of the state still exemplifies the mystique of the western frontier: local, family-owned mills still thrive, many family ranches still make their living off the land, and wild mountains and forests still provide habitat for a wide range of wildlife—from caribou to grizzly bear, to Canada’s lynx—found few other places in the U.S. outside of Alaska.

Important corridor for wildlife

Scientists have also identified the Columbia Highlands region with its intact wild areas and open spaces as an important region for wildlife to travel between the Cascades and Rocky Mountains.  This is particularly important as development continues to encroach up the remaining intact wildlife habitat.

“If we are proactive now, our efforts to conserve crucial wildlife habitat here will be considerably more productive in both sweat equity and financial investment,”  added Mike Petersen of The Lands Council.  “Waiting or doing nothing will only bring the inevitable—loss of important wildlife habitat and greater, more expensive efforts to protect what is left.”

“Avista has a long-standing commitment to balancing environmental stewardship, economic development and supporting our communities,” added Ron Gray of Avista’s Kettle Falls Generating Station.  “We support the efforts of the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition because we believe that working together is key to building a better energy future.

“This collaboration is an example of taking care of our natural resources so that those resources will continue to take care of us,”  added Gray, who serves on the board of the coalition.