Conservation Northwest protects and connects old-growth forests and other wild areas from the Washington Coast to the British Columbia Rockies, vital to a healthy future for us, our children, and wildlife. Since 1989, Conservation Northwest has worke
Issue link: http://conservationnw.uberflip.com/i/122699
Roads and wildlife Getting serious about roads and wildlife habitat The Forest Service's definition of "road decommissioning" spans a range of options, from gating or otherwise blocking a road entrance to breaking up the roadway and recontouring the roadbed. Fifty miles of such roads, many already closed to vehicle traffic, have been identified for potential decommissioning in the Colville National Forest. Collaborators agree that roads needed to maintain firesafe vegetative conditions in the forests close to communities (the Wildland Urban Interface) and many other roads open to the public should be kept open and retained. There are positive signs on the Colville National Forest that the impacts of a staggering 4,000-plus miles of roads are being taken seriously. In 2012, the Forest Service commences work on a transportation assessment at the watershed scale to "identify the minimum road system needed for safe and efficient travel and for administra- New million-dollar funding for restoration is encouraging for Colville National Forest. Photo © Eric Zamora tion, utilization, and protection of NFS lands." With federal, Legacy Roads funding, the analyses will help with vegetation management, fuels treatment, and restoration. The Chief of the Forest Service has directed each forest to complete the travel analysis process on all Forest Service roads by 2015. The Colville National Forest has 3,532 roads spanning 4,313 miles, in large part constructed for logging between 1950 and 1990. Since then, the need for these roads and the funding to maintain them has dropped markedly, while the ecological impacts of many miles of deteriorating roads has grown steadily. Following an environmental and public review process, the transportation assessment will provide a set of recommendations on what a future road system may look like on the Colville National Forest to benefit and improve water quality and wildlife habitat. See fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/ ohv/chap20.pdf for more info. structure that adversely affects the forest's ecosystems, where there is a need to enhance or restore the natural ecological processes and forest resiliency. Ramping up restoration The Colville National Forest and Forestry Coalition already have an impressive track record of collaboration on successful dry forest restoration projects. But a shift is underway in the Forestry Coalition's collaboration, from developing common ground on fuels-reduction projects in dry forest types in the Active Management Area to collaboration on appropriate restoration for wetter forest types (mesic/moist) in the Restoration Area. If all goes as planned with the new funding, another 208,000 acres on the west half of the Colville National Forest will be slated for restoration treatments. Many of those acres will be restored through forestry prescriptions, road decommissioning, and fish passage and water qual- ity improvements, and by reintroducing fire, treating weeds, and maintaining key roads, to prevent future washouts and stream sedimentation, over the next decade. To help the process along, Conservation Northwest and other Forestry Coalition partners are stepping up to help fund former Conservation Northwest staff forester Derek Churchill to guide us in developing prescriptions for these restoration projects. Restoration near Orient, Washington, an example of 147,000 acres in the western Colville National Forest, much of it dry-side forest, that Conservation Northwest, Forest Service, and partners have restored. Photo David Heflick Keeping the Northwest wild Spring-Summer 2012 15