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The Plantation
Restoration Program is, essentially, the collaborative group’s long-term vision put to work on the ground. After learning a great deal from our previous forest projects, the collaborative group decided to
One of our latest projects is the Stand Inventory Project. One of the largest barriers the Pinchot Partners have encountered in working to create a steady supply of forest thinning and restoration work is a lack of accurate and up-to-date stand inventory information which is needed to plan restoration thinning projects and accurately project the number of acres that could be thinned for ecological reasons in the next 20 years. The Forest Service’s current vegetation database is insufficient. Due to decreasing budgets and limited staff capacity, the Forest Service is not able to collect this information making the larger goal of producing a predictable and stable level restoration work and investment very difficult. The collaborative group has thus designed and leveraged funding to identify suitable stands for thinning and to update current Forest Service stand inventory information on 25-80 year old stands on the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District. In 2007 and 2008, we inventoried 31,000 acres of forest stands. Ron Pfeifer is managing the project and is doing the GIS analysis, stand selection, and a portion of the field work. Garry Wassenaar, from Morton, will be doing the bulk of the field work.
Another exciting success is the metamorphosis of Smooth Juniper from a controversial project likely to be targeted for litigation to a 3-million board foot timber sale that all collaborative partners support. Pinchot Partners, led by Regan Smith with Conservation Northwest, decided to take Smooth Juniper "off the Forest Service shelf" and write a collaborative alternative for the project. The Forest Service selected the collaborative group's alternative and the contract was awarded in 2005 to Zumstein Logging. We will continue to monitor this project over the coming years.
The Pinchot Partners have been working on the Iron
Creek Watershed Restoration Project since 2004. Iron Creek was been identified by the Forest Service as a high priority watershed for aquatic restoration. The Forest Service reached this assessment after reviewing criteria including the presence and state of threatened, endangered, and sensitive species; road density and location; riparian condition; and key watershed status (Northwest Forest Plan). Iron Creek is located in the Lower Cispus watershed and has the highest sediment delivery in the watershed—one of the limiting factors in this area for the recovery of species including winter steelhead and coho. All these factors combined to make it a compelling sub Our first restoration project in the Iron Creek subwatershed was replacing and right-sizing culverts along two miles of road to restore fish passage and reduce sediment delivery to the Lower Cispus River. After completing the culvert project, it was clear that this and previous restoration work implemented by the Forest Service was threatened by two road segments at risk of failing and dumping very large sediment loads into the creeks and river. However, unlike the previous road where we replaced culverts, there was no need for these particular roads to remain. There is a $40-50 million road maintenance backlog on the GPNF that grows each year -- an additional $17 million (and counting) in damage to roads, campground and trails was inflicted by the floods this year. The condition of the road system is one of the greatest obstacles we face in restoring wild salmon to the streams and native wildlife to the woods in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The road system’s maintenance problems also create access issues for local residents, hunters, and other recreational users. The first .2 miles of road were removed in the summer of 2005. The Pinchot Partners have currently secured funding for the final two miles of road removal called for by this multi-phased project, which will likely be completed in the summer of2007.
The first collaborative group project was the Cat Creek Thin. Cat Creek is a restoration thinning sale that was created by collaborative partners to test variable density thinning as a means to create habitat in plantations and to utilize unique contracting arrangements. Click here to read the Cat Creek Monitoring Protocol |
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scale up and work on a project that could have far-reaching implications for forest management on the GPNF. The popular Plantation Program aims to provide a stable, predictable level of restoration work on the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District by creating a restoration plan and environmental planning document that brings together diverse interests and sets the stage for a long-term, non-controversial program of forest work. The Plantation Program will restore nearly 2,000 acres of plantations (previous clear-cuts) and watersheds on the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District, providing about two years of reliable forest work for local area contractors. The plantations will be thinned to accelerate habitat development for spotted owl, woodpeckers, small mammals and many other species. Additional restoration work including road removal and invasive weed eradication will be included. The project areas selected are close to town and generally low in elevation, creating easy access for local contractors and an extended work calendar. 
