A pioneering forest management plan
Through community organizing, hard work, and a willingness to find solutions, Conservation Northwest and the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition has created a comprehensive management plan for the Columbia Highlands.
In the Columbia Highlands of northeastern Washington
Through community organizing, hard work, and a willingness to find solutions, the Northeast
Washington Forestry Coalition, including Conservation Northwest, has collaborated to create balance in the woods for the 1.1 million-acre Colville National Forest of northeastern Washington. The results are a holistic forest management proposal for the Columbia Highlands that helps meet the needs of wildlife, recreation, and local communities and goes a long way to resolving some of the biggest timber sale challenges of the day. The collaboration process was begun to coincide revision of the Colville National Forest plan then
underway by
the Forest Service.
The resulting collaborative forest plan is a novel attempt and important starting point to future management for the forest. Along the way, the Coalition has sought opinions from the broader community to make the plan as strong as possible to benefit everyone.
The resulting plan sets out three levels of forest management, providing a balance across the forest and meet the needs of wildlife and local communities:
- Responsible management. These stands cover approximately one-third of the forest near homes, communities, and roads. Responsible management areas would be managed to reduce and maintain minimal fire risk and provide sustainable timber harvest using methods that conserve soils, water, and wildlife habitat.
- Restoration. The coalition identified another approximate third of the forest that would benefit from restoration. Past management and fire exclusion has in many forests created dense thickets which can benefit from thinning, which reduces fire risk to old trees, enhances the establishment of natural fire regimes, speeds growth of small trees into big trees, and repairs important wildlife habitat. Where appropriate, trail construction and maintenance are components of restoration projects in these areas.
- Wilderness. A final third of the forest meets the standards for wilderness-quality landscapes. Management objectives here include maintaining or restoring wilderness characteristics to provide for backcountry recreation as well as secure wildlife habitat for lynx, grizzly bear, mule deer, and elk. The heart of the proposed wilderness is more than a dozen inventoried roadless areas.
