Southern Blues Restoration Coalition Project to receive $3M
By Logan Bagett on Monday, April 25th, 2022 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
JOHN DAY & BURNS – According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Southern Blues Restoration Project will receive $3 million this year for forest health and wildfire risk reduction work. Project areas include lands on the Malheur National Forest, The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Conservation Areas, and Burns Paiute Tribe. Find the full release below:
(Press Release from the United States Department of Agriculture)
Collaborative, community-led forest health and wildfire risk reduction projects in the Pacific Northwest will receive more than $16 million in Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) funding this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday.
The funds are among the $31.1 million awarded for the USDA Forest Service Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) projects. In all, seven collaborative, landscape-scale, multi-year projects in Washington and Oregon were approved for fiscal year 2022 funds, for a total investment of $16.073 million.
Funding was made available through a combination of annual appropriations and additional funds made available in the recently-passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
CFLRP is a federal program designed to reduce the risk of severe wildfires while supporting local economies, creating jobs and enhancing forest and watershed health by providing multi-year funding for large, landscape-scale forest health and resiliency projects planned collaboratively with local communities, environmental organizations, business groups, and other stakeholders.
Since 2009, the program has funded treatments to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire on more than 4.5 million acres, supported more than $2.3 billion in total labor income, and engaged more than 420 community organizations, while rehabilitating 224,000 acres of forest vegetation by planting, seeding, and natural regeneration, reducing or eradicating invasive plants across 210,000 acres, and enhancing more than 1768 miles of stream habitat.
Washington-based CFLRP projects receiving FY 2022 funding include:
The North Central Washington Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program Project will receive $1.4 million this year towardstreating a project area of 1.1 million acres to align with Washington state’s 20-year Forest Health Action Plan. The approach strategically places treatment to reduce wildfire risk for some of the most vulnerable cities and communities in the Pacific Northwest so that multiple tools and tactics can be used to manage the fires safely and appropriately. Work will include fuels treatments, stream and fisheries improvements, and wildlife habitat restoration.
TheNortheast Washington Forest Vision 2020 Project will receive $3 million this fiscal year towards work on 916,000 acres to align with the Washington State’s 20-year Forest Health Action Plan. This project extends the initial ten-year project approved in 2012 to treat an additional half-million acres of federal lands, primarily on the Colville National Forest, and additional state-managed and Tribal lands. The project restores forested landscapes and watersheds to prepare for future wildfires and the effects of climate change, with goals to restore forests and habitats, reduce hazardous fuels, use woody biomass and small-diameter trees, and reduce the costs of treatments and wildfire management.
Oregon-based CFLRP projects receiving FY 2022 funding include:
The Northern Blues Forest Restoration Project, a 10.4-million-acre project to reduce wildfire risk and prepare the landscape to safely manage fire, will receive $3 million this fiscal year for forest health and resiliency work. The area has a strong history of successful cross-boundary, all-lands restoration collaboration, and this investment will fund continued work in the project area on the Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests.
The Southern Blues Restoration Coalition Project will receive $3 million this year towards extending the initial ten-year project approved in 2012. The initial project goals included treatment of one million acres of lands suffering from departed fire regimes, species composition, and forest stand densities that threaten to destroy key habitat, old growth, important aquatic resources and private property due to uncharacteristic wildfires and effects of a changing climate. The extended project includes treatments on more than 200,000 additional acres on the Malheur National Forest, The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Conservation Areas, and Burns Paiute Tribe land. The overarching goal for this project is restoration at a scale that will help native wildlife thrive, create forests that are resilient to climate change, and support the health, safety, and prosperity of local communities in eastern Oregon.
TheDeschutes Collaborative Forest Project includes 258,000 acres of high-value landscape with a broad array of collaborative support. The initial project received $6.7 million for an initial ten-year project period when it was approved in 2010. It was awarded $673,000 this year to fund work on a five-year extension to the project that focuses on reducing high-severity wildfire in the wildland-urban interface, protecting watersheds, preserving recreation areas, and providing jobs and wood products on and around the Deschutes National Forest.
The Lakeview Stewardship Project on 859,000 acres important to rural communities for recreation and forestry sector jobs in southern Oregon will receive $2 million this year. The project extends the initial 10-year Lakeview Stewardship CFLRP project approved in 2012. The project is led by the Lakeview Stewardship Group forest collaborative (LSG), in collaboration with the Fremont-Winema National Forest (FWNF). It’s goal is to create a healthy, resilient and functional forest landscape maintained with fire to mitigate the threat of high-severity wildfires to dry forests, habitat, water quality and communities.
TheRogue Basin Landscape Restoration Project will receive $3 million to fund work across 4.6 million acres on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest this year. The proposed work will accelerate urgently needed restoration treatments to meet long-term, collaboratively developed strategic goals of wildfire risk reduction, landscape resiliency, improved wildlife habitat, watershed protection, adaptation, and social and economic resilience in southwest Oregon.
“These funds will help our National Forests and partners to reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire across these CFLRP landscapes,” said Glenn Casamassa, U.S. Forest Service regional forester for the Pacific Northwest Region.
“By working closely with collaboratives and other partners, we will be able to improve our forests and communities. Collaborative planning is never easy, but these projects show that with hard work, active listening, and a desire to find common goals, we can find solutions the improve forest health and provide community and economic benefit,” he said.
For more information about the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration program, visit https://www.fs.fed.us/restoration/CFLRP/index.shtml.
To learn more about the U.S. Forest Service – Pacific Northwest Region, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/r6.
