$2.28M toward continued fire mitigation work in Grant County
By Logan Bagett on Monday, July 1st, 2024 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
JOHN DAY / CANYON CITY / MT. VERNON / PRAIRIE CITY – Projects on the USDA’s Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership are continuing this year. A recent Forest Service release states that the Southern Blues Restoration Project received $2.28 million in fiscal year 2024 for work on the Malheur National Forest.
This will continue fire mitigation work that began in 2023 and includes fuel treatments near the communities of Mount Vernon, John Day, Canyon City, and Prairie City. Find the full press release from the Forest Service below:
(Press Release from the Malheur National Forest)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting proposals for new multi-year, landscape-scale Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership forest health projects for fiscal year 2025. Proposals are due to the department’s Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service by September 13, 2024, to be considered for funding in fiscal year 2025.
Joint Chiefs’ project proposals are developed at the local level through a collaborative process involving the agency’s Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NCRS), and their partners.
The Forest Service and NCRS work with partners to develop projects that reduce wildfire risk, improve forest health and resiliency, and protect drinking water supplies on national forests and their surrounding landscapes.
Past partners have included county, state, non-governmental, Tribal, utilities and private individual stakeholders. Once developed, proposals are submitted by local NRCS and Forest Service offices to their respective national offices for further consideration.
This year, USDA is investing more than $4.09 million in two Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership projects that address forest health needs on National Forests and surrounding lands in the Pacific Northwest.
The North Wasco All Lands Project received more than $1.81 million to continue work that restores and promotes resiliency in fire-adapted ecosystems of the east slopes of the Oregon Cascades, including Hood River and Wasco Counties and the Mt. Hood National Forest.
The project, first funded in fiscal year 2023, addresses changes on the landscape caused by past management that prevented wildfires and other cyclical disturbances on conifer forests in the project area.
A variety of treatments, including thinning, weeds treatments, road improvement, vegetation management, mastication and prescribed burning are being used to reduce fuels and return the forest to conditions that are closer to its historic range of variability, while reducing wildfire threats to adjacent communities and protecting municipal watersheds.
The Southern Blues Restoration Project received $2.28 million in fiscal year 2024 to continue work to protect vegetation and habitat, including critical stream habitat, for threatened and endangered species in the Southern Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, including on the Malheur National Forest.
This multi-year project, which began in fiscal year 2023, includes strategic fuel treatments to reduce wildfire risk to surrounding communities, which include Mount Vernon, John Day, Canyon City, and Prairie City, while improving forest, rangeland, and overall watershed resiliency to proactively address changes in climate and precipitation patterns.
The project also includes outreach and education to private landowners that provides information to help manage their property to promote a more fire-adapted landscape, and supports local employment though processing of thinned materials at two local mills and a post-and-pole plant.
Nationally, NRCS and Forest Service will invest more than $54.6 million in 41 Joint Chief’s Restoration Program projects this fiscal year, including ten new projects, bringing together agricultural producers, forest landowners, and National Forest land managers to improve forest health.
“Wildfires have no boundaries, and neither should our prevention work. Joint Chiefs’ partnership projects help us increase the scale of our wildfire prevention efforts to better protect communities, while also improving forest health more broadly across larger landscapes and multiple ownerships,” said Jacque Buchanan, USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Regional Forester. “These efforts demonstrate the benefits of working collectively to improve conditions across landscapes and increase resiliency against all types of disturbances including wildfires, floods, heatwaves, and drought.”
Since 2014, USDA has invested more than $423 million in 134 projects in 42 states, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico, through the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership. These projects focus on areas where public forests and grasslands intersect with privately-owned land, delivering important funding to improve and maintain the health of forests and rangeland.
Additional information
For more information about the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership website, visit https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/joint-chiefs-landscape-restoration-partnership.
For a link to this release and more news & information about National Forests in the Pacific Northwest, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/news/r6/news-events.
For more information about the USDA Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/r6.
For more information about the USDA Forest Service visit https://www.fs.usda.gov.
