The North Central Washington Forest Health Collaborative formed a Projects Workgroup to actively engage with the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest (OWNF) on restoration projects that will assist the NCWFHC in fulfilling its functions and achieving its goals. The Workgroup will look at all stages of project development, from purpose and need through monitoring and adaptive management.

Current Projects that the NCWFHC is collaborating on include:

• Mission (Methow Valley Ranger District)
• Mt. Hull (Tonasket RD)
• Chelan County Pilot (Chelan RD)
• Light (TRD)
• Tillicum (Entiat RD)
• Twisp (MVRD)
• South Summit (MVRD)
• Annie (TRD)

The Projects Workgroup is actively engaging on several restoration projects, two of which are highlighted below. Click here to review comment letters from the collaborative on various projects.

Mission Project

In order to allow the Methow Ranger District staff the time to respond to the workload resulting from the Carlton Complex fire, the member organizations of the North Central Washington Forest Health Collaborative (NCWFHC) have invested in the Mission area to develop high quality information and restoration proposals that the Forest Service can analyze and consider to guide decisions about future management activities.

“The Mission project area possesses exceptional fish and wildlife habitat values that contribute to the Methow Valley’s unique environmental quality and economic well-being. We want to help the Forest Service determine what are the most appropriate actions needed to restore healthier forest and watershed conditions and reduce the threat of disastrous fires and floods.” – Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society.

The Mission Project work area is the Buttermilk Creek and Libby Creek watersheds in Okanogan County approximately between Carlton and Twisp. This area has four important features that drive synergistic opportunities for management activities and would benefit from restoration work: habitat for endangered fish; unsustainable vegetation composition; vulnerable wildlife habitat; and opportunities for social and economic benefit.

“The Carlton Complex Fire burned over 70% of the South Summit Restoration Project that was only weeks away from being signed. What a set-back, so we asked how we can help. That is why we appreciate being invited by the Methow Valley Ranger District (MVRD) to explore potential restoration treatments in the Libby and Buttermilk Ck. watersheds while the MVRD prepared a post-fire South Summit II Restoration Project. I am so proud of our NCWFHC Project Workgroup for enthusiastically volunteering their time, knowledge and skills to provide ideas for ecologically and economically-sound restoration treatments for the MVRD to consider.” – Lloyd McGee of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and co-chair of the NCWFHC.

Additional information about the Mission project area:

• Libby Creek and Buttermilk Creek provide important habitat for Upper Columbia River Spring Run Chinook salmon, Upper Columbia River steelhead, and bull trout which are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. In addition, beaver habitat has been identified as a critical need for fisheries recovery and climate change adaptation throughout the Methow River and its tributaries. Protecting the watershed and aquatic ecosystem health and improving the currently impaired hydrologic and geomorphic processes in the Libby and Buttermilk sub-watersheds can support and complement efforts to recover these threatened fish and other native aquatic species.
• Historically, the relatively dry portions of this landscape had more frequent fires that maintained canopies of trees and shrubs to be more open, allowing ground cover and grasses to diversify. Landscape analysis of the Mission project area indicates that the terrestrial ecosystem has been altered from its natural historic and modeled future range of variability. Past management practices such as timber harvest and fire exclusion over the past century have resulted in densely stocked forest stands that are susceptible to uncharacteristic outbreaks of insects, disease, and severe wildfire behavior. These conditions also limit the ability to control wildfires in the Wildland Urban Interface.
• The Mission project area also has exceptional wildlife values. The project area includes the Lookout Mountain roadless area and the first documented wolf pack in the Cascade Mountains since the 1930s. Other rare and indicator species that use habitats in the project area include white-headed woodpeckers, flammulated owls, spotted owls, and western gray squirrels. In presettlement times, the habitat had more open canopies with larger diameter trees and grassy vegetation maintained by frequent fire. Past timber harvest and fire suppression has resulted in overstocking of small diameter trees and shrubs and loss of large trees. Ineffective road closures and unauthorized off-road vehicle use also impair habitat security.
• Actively restoring healthier aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems can produce social and economic benefits for local communities. These benefits include employment and/or stewardship contracting opportunities, wood products, healthier watersheds, and reduced risk of uncharacteristic insect and disease impacts, which lead to uncharacteristic fire behavior.

How the NCWFHC member organizations are getting involved:

1. Trout Unlimited and the Colville Tribe have contracted with a biologist to compile existing aquatic data and identify important data gaps needed for making restoration decisions.
2. The Colville Tribe have contributed in-kind technical support from their Methow Valley fisheries biologist for field surveys.
3. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) paid for a forester to analyze the vegetation data to identify how current conditions differ from historic conditions and from desired conditions. The locations identified as having high priority departed conditions will be field-verified with support from NCWFHC members.
4. Several NCWFHC member organizations are learning techniques for recording and verifying the locations and condition of roads throughout the project area.
5. TNC’s contracted forester will develop site specific prescriptions for restoration actions that will increase resilience and restore sustainable, functional forest conditions.

The NCWFHC’s Project Work Group is planning to compile sufficient data and information that management proposals could be developed and analyzed in time for a September, 2016 decision.

For additional information please contact Mike Anderson at mike_anderson@tws.org or Pete Teigen at pete.teigen@ucsrb.org.

South Summit Forest and Fuels II

This project area is located within the Methow subbasin of the Upper Columbia Region, east of the town of Twisp, WA. The South Summit Forest and Fuels I project was weeks from being finalized when the Carlton Complex fire broke out. This fire, the worst in Washington’s history, burned a major portion of the South Summit I project area. The NCWFHC conducted a post-fire field trip to look at the restoration still needed on the landscape, and to identify potential commercial thinning that was still necessary, and whether it might generate adequate funds to help pay for the non-commercial thinning still needed. The NCWFHC will continue to work with the Methow Valley Ranger District to identify post-fire restoration needs and the resources for implementation, and has issued a comment letter on the project scoping letter.