Southern Blues Restoration project to receive nearly $2M

By Logan Bagett on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories

GRANT COUNTY – The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service will invest millions this year through the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership program. One project is the Southern Blues Restoration in Grant County, which is slated to receive nearly $2 million dollars. Find the USDA’s full press release below:

(Press Release from USDA in Oregon)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Oregon will invest over $5 million this year through the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership program. The funding will support two new projects: the North Wasco All Lands project and the Southern Blues Restoration project.

Working alongside the USDA Forest Service, Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership projects mitigate wildfire risk, improve water quality, restore forest ecosystems, and ultimately contribute to USDA’s efforts to combat climate change.

Learn more about Oregon’s two new Joint Chiefs’ projects below.

North Wasco All Lands

Total FY23 Funding Request: $3,119,600

Location: Mt. Hood National Forest in Hood River and Wasco counties

Project description: This project will provide resources to restore and promote resiliency in fire-adapted ecosystems of the east slopes of the Oregon Cascades. Through past management activities and fire exclusion, the fire-adapted conifer forests in the project area have deviated from the natural fire return interval and other disturbance cycles. A variety of treatments, including thinning, weeds treatments, road improvement and vegetation management, mastication and prescribed burning will be utilized to reduce fuel loadings and thin overstocked stands, with the goal of returning the landscape closer to its historic range of variability. Treatments will create resiliency to large-scale disturbances, while mitigating wildfire threats to at-risk adjacent communities within the wildland urban interface (WUI) and municipal watersheds in the project area.

Partners: NRCS Oregon, U.S. Forest Service, City of The Dalles, Office of State Fire Marshal, Oregon Department of Forestry, Oregon Department of State Lands, Oregon State University Extension, Wasco County Forest Collaborative and private landowners

Southern Blues Restoration

Total FY23 Funding Request: $1,974,231

Location: Malheur National Forest in Grant County

Project description: This project area is diverse both in the plants, wildlife species, and critical stream habitat for numerous threatened and endangered species located in the Southern Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. The project boundary includes the populations of Mount Vernon, John Day, Canyon City, and Prairie City. This project will create strategic fuel treatments to reduce fire risk to local communities while improving forest, rangeland, and overall watershed resiliency to proactively address changes in climate and precipitation patterns. This project will also engage in outreach and education to landowners about their property to promote a more fire adapted landscape. The project will partner with the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, who are contributing funding, outreach, and education to support the work on the ground. Additionally, this project will support two local mills and a post-and-pole plant, providing local jobs to contractors as well as opportunities for children and families to thrive in the local communities.

Partners: NRCS Oregon, U.S. Forest Service, Bayer Corporation, Blue Mountain Forest Partners, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, Grant County Community Action Team, Grant Soil and Water Conservation District, Jerome Natural Resource Consulting, Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, Oregon Department of Forestry, Oregon State University Extension and private landowners

USDA Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership Program

Across the nation, the USDA will invest more than $48.6 million this year through the Joint Chiefs’ program, bringing together agricultural producers, forest landowners, and National Forest System lands to improve forest health using available Farm Bill conservation programs and other authorities.

“The need for cross-boundary wildfire risk reduction work as part of our Wildfire Crisis Strategy is more urgent than ever. These projects, and the $930 million of investments being made across 21 landscapes in highest-risk firesheds in the western U.S., speak to our commitment to improve forest health and resiliency across the nation’s forests to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire,” said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. “We have long moved beyond wildfire seasons to fire years, with an annual average of 8 million acres burned since 2015; more than 10 million acres burned in three of those years. The Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership promotes cross-boundary work needed to increase the scale of our wildfire risk reduction efforts to protect people and communities, critical infrastructure, water supplies, and ecosystems from extreme wildfire.”

NRCS Chief Terry Cosby added: “These Joint Chiefs’ projects are excellent examples of how federal, state, and local agencies can use targeted funding to achieve results that meet producers’ conservation goals, build drought resiliency, and mitigate climate change. Through collaboration and strategic investments in local communities, we continue to work with the Forest Service to respond to significant conservation needs on private and public lands.”

The Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership enables the Forest Service and NRCS to collaborate with agricultural producers and forest landowners to invest in conservation and restoration at a large enough scale to make a difference. Working in partnership, and at this scale, helps reduce wildfire threats to communities and critical infrastructure, protect water quality and supply, and improve wildlife habitat for at-risk species.

Congress recently recognized the value of this important USDA program by memorializing it in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Biden on November 15, 2021. The law includes enhanced collaboration and public engagement associated with future projects. The Forest Service and NRCS look forward to supporting the now permanent Joint Chiefs’ program to enhance the resilience of our forests, communities, water supplies, and working lands.

USDA is investing $17.4 million in these 14 new projects:

Arizona, Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape Phase Two
Arkansas and Oklahoma, Arklahoma Ozark Watershed Restoration
California, Forest Health and Fire Resilient Rural Communities Phase Three
Guam, Making Southern Guam Firewise and Wildfire Resistant
Idaho, South Teton Valley Hazardous Fuels Removal
Illinois, Cross-Boundary Upland Oak Restoration
Montana, Elkhorn Cooperative Management Area
New Jersey, New Jersey Pine Barrens Restoration
North Dakota, Badlands Restoration Phase Two
Oregon, North Wasco All Lands
Oregon, Southern Blues Restoration
Pennsylvania, Allegheny Plateau Habitat Restoration
South Carolina, Piedmont Watershed Restoration
Wisconsin, Northeast Wisconsin Forestry and Wildlife Partnership

Through the new three-year projects, landowners will work with local USDA experts and partners to apply targeted forestry management practices on their land, such as thinning, hazardous fuel treatments, fire breaks, and other systems to meet unique forestry challenges in their area.  

Additionally, USDA is investing $31.2 million in 25 existing projects. For full project descriptions and information on completed projects, visit the Joints Chiefs’ webpage.

More Information

USDA has invested more than $286 million in 110 projects over eight years in Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership projects, which focus on areas where public forests and grasslands intersect with privately-owned lands. Since 2014, these projects have delivered important forest and rangeland funding to 42 states and Puerto Rico.

Agricultural producers and forest managers interested in participating in Joint Chiefs’ or other USDA conservation programs should contact their local USDA Service Center.

Learn more about the Forest Service work to confront the wildfire crisis.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.