Conservation Northwest

Keeping the Northwest wild Fall 2017 13 Coast to Cascades Updates evaluations to understand current conditions and strategically prioritize restoration actions in the portion of the landscape that has departed from historic conditions due to decades of fire suppression and old-growth logging. e result is projects like the Mission Restoration Project, covering a 50,000 acre landscape outside of Twisp, Wash - ington. Here, with guidance from us and support from our local forest col- laborative, the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest has proposed conduct- ing 11,000 acres of prescribed fire, 8,000 acres of non-commercial thinning, a couple thousand acres of commercial thinning, and decommissioning 30-50 miles of unnecessary roads. We're in - volved in similar restoration projects underway near Lake Wenatchee and in the Kettle Range. However, there are threats to this progress and the collaborative relation - ships that make it possible. As predict- able as the summer drought and season- al fires are the opportunistic politicians that appear during fires, maneuvering for regulatory changes to make national forests easier to log. ey're mostly miss - ing the point. To get meaningful results, we need intelligent and thoughtful actions that are grounded in science, strategically prioritized, and focused on restoring fire, landscape spatial patterns, and old - er fire-resilient trees. Sure, commercial thinning that supports local mills and restoration jobs has a key role, but ag- gressive logging solely to extract timber value across huge areas won't prevent fires—just ask British Columbia. Last weekend my family and I visited Tiffany Lake west of Loomis State For - est, a botanical area that burned a decade ago in the Tripod Fire. It is lush with flowers turned to seed and berry, young lodgepole and spruce seedlings reaching skyward, and a mosaic of burned and unburned overstory. ere are pikas, chipmunks, Douglas squirrels, and tons of birds. In a few more years, it'll prob - ably be prime Canada lynx habitat full of snowshoe hares. If there is a lesson from Tiffany Lake, it's that we need to take the long view, continuing collaborative ecological res - toration to improve forest and landscape resilience to broadly accommodate and benefit from fire. Doing so will serve the long-term interests of people, wildlife, and the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Editor's Note: Research shows that a combined approach of strategic thinning and prescribed fire, restoring old trees, and greater preparedness is the best approach to improve forest health and protect communities. For more on our work, please visit: conservationnw.org/ our-work/wildlands/fire. Grizzly bear restoration transcends borders COAST TO CASCADES INITIATIVE Joe Scott International Programs Director, jscott@conservationnw.org The Canada/U.S. border should not be an ecological iron curtain. Conservation Northwest has taken the approach that we can always find ways to work with our Canadian friends in the service of nature on its own terms—that the habitats, processes and creatures with which we share our lives do not observe political boundaries. e Coast to Cascades Initiative (C2C) approaches our shared transboundary ecolog y through the lens of the grizzly bear. C2C reflects our decades-long effort to restore grizzlies regionally—on both sides of the border. Why? Because grizzly bears are the most challenging animal to conserve in a growing region. So if we can make Cascadia safe and well-connected for grizzlies, other wildlife will benefit. And if we're to recover and maintain grizzly bears in Washington in the long term, a well-connected landscape and continuous regional grizzly bear presence stretching to the B.C. Coast Ranges is vital. Community Driven e C2C initiative has approached grizzly bear recovery in southwest B.C. (and Washington) as a community project. e capable C2C staff have done incredible work reaching out to local governments and First Nations to enlist support Grizzly bear mother and cub. Photo: Steve Ogle Continued, next page

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