Conservation Northwest

Conservation Northwest updates national forest partnerships in four watersheds Jen Watkins Conservation associate, jwatkins@conservationnw.org Restoring habitat for wildlife As the spring snow melts from the mountains, we're hightailing it to the central and eastern Cascades, where we are restoring, improving, and connecting wildlife habitat in four watersheds from Snoqualmie Pass to the Okanogan Highlands. As our volunteers apply their muscles and hand tools in the field, professionals with larger equipment are helping us meet our restoration goals for wildlife. In the I-90 corridor, volunteers will Summer handiwork Before the snow flies again this year, we are busy restoring habitat: –Helping fund work by the OkanoganWenatchee National Forest replacing old culverts and adding new culverts on Gold Creek basin's Forest Road 4832-142, which suffers from heavy rains and rain-on-snow flooding. The restoration will channel runoff away from the roadbed and under the roadway, protecting downstream habitat. –Combining private and Forest Service funding to restore 3 miles of road in a key watershed north of Hwy 2 near Leavenworth. Conservation Northwest is a long-time member of the Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition, working to reduce the risk of wildfire ignition, improve watershed health, and safeguard wildlife habitat. spread chips, establish native plants, pull old fences that block wildlife, and break down picnic tables in closed campgrounds. Elsewhere, we're also turning old roads into habitat. Of the 8,000 miles of roads on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, many are abandoned or duplicate spurs constructed for past timber sales. The presence of too many roads too close together is hard on the land and on animals. Roads can harm wildlife, fragment habitat, erode streams, reduce the capacity of soils to store water, and provide paths for the spread of invasive plants. Roads can also provide tremendous benefits, allowing access to public lands for recreation and management. With our restoration work this season, we are stabilizing and improving drainage on an important road in the Gold Creek basin just east of Snoqualmie Pass, while decommissioning approximately six miles of road elsewhere. As the ink dries on the agreements ensuring completion of this year's field work, we're also raising funds for further work in 2014. In the I-90 corridor, scientific studies point out that available large carnivore habitat in the southern Cascade Range is separated from available habitat in the central Cascade Range by the landscape surrounding I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass. "The distribution of large carnivore habitat in the northern and central Cascade Range was restricted to the south by high road density and discontinuous forest cover along the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass corridor." (Reference: Singleton, Gaines, and Lehmkuhl, "Landscape Permeability for Large Carnivores in Washington," 2002) We are raising $61,000 to decommission unnecessary roads in habitat next to wildlife crossing structures included in the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project. Using the same creative solutions and partners that have worked to conserve lands and create safe passage for wildlife over and under the interstate, we can also restore the health of these lands for the wildlife returning to the Cascades. Summer's helping hands are good for wildlife. Watch us as we continue our work this summer from the Yakima watershed to the Chumstick, Methow, and Okanogan rivers and on into 2014. Volunteers restoring Gold Creek last year. We need your help this year on June 22 and again on September 18. Afterward, head over to Seattle for our Hope for a Wild Future auction! See more at conservationnw.org/calendar. Photo by Jen Watkins –Finalizing funding for the Methow Ranger District to decommission and restore 1.5 miles of road in the ecologically rich Chewuch watershed, providing tremendous benefit to fish and wildlife habitat. –Contributing $10,000 (thanks to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation) to decommission and restore duplicate or unnecessary road miles in the Okanogan Highlands of the Tonasket Ranger District. 14 Spring-Summer 2013 conservationnw.org

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