Fertile ground for cooperation

Hundreds of thousands of acres of second-growth plantations in Washington are fertile ground for cooperation between conservationists concerned with restoring degraded forests and timber interests and communities concerned with supply of local logs and local jobs.

Read about our forest restoration work in 2007

Forest restoration in second-growth plantations yield jobs and logs, and healthier forests for people and animals. Restoration can release forests from an artificially-prolonged youth to send them on their way to maturity and old growth. It's an exciting time for Washington forests and for a future of community collaboration between all stakeholders in the forests.

Restoring second-growth plantations

Most of our original old-growth forests in Washington are gone, and many of these forests have grown up into second-growth plantations that look and function very differently than the way forests did only 100 years ago.

For example, in eastern Washington, thousands of acres of dry forest have been significantly changed by almost a century of fire exclusion, cattle grazing, and bad logging practices. These changes have led to increased catastrophic fires, a loss in soil productivity, and a growing number of plants and animals threatened with extinction.

In western Washington, thousands of acres of wet forests clearcut in the binge-cutting of the 1960s and ‘70s are overly crowded with trees now big enough to be valuable.

Bringing back ecological health

Recent research brings to light actions we can take to improve the ecological health of our national forests. Thinning and understory burning on dryer, eastside sites reduces stand density, lowering competition for water among those trees remaining and making them better able to withstand disease, insects, and fire and grow to be large, old homes for wildlife. Thinning of second-growth plantations on wetter, westside sites can also shorten the time needed for these forests to provide habitat for old-growth species.

Of course, forest thinning isn't the only tool for restoring damaged lands. Other actions, such as removing failing roads, replanting riparian areas, and controlling and preventing the spread of noxious weeds are equally important and also provide employment opportunities.

Common ground and retooling

Common ground restoration work through community collaboration can also provide reinvestment opportunities for rural communities crippled by severe declines in logging on federal land in the last two decades of the 20th century. By encouraging retooling and value-added enterprises, we can help maintain elements of these communities' long-standing contribution to the nation's forest products industry.