Four Forest Restoration Projects with a project area of nearly 200,000 acres have started or are going to start within the next few years.  How can we make sure these projects improve the ecological health of our forests?

It seems like all at once, forest restoration projects are either happening, about to happen, or in the planning phases. We’ve been working collaboratively for years with the North Central Washington Forest Health Collaborative to create projects the community can support and have been simultaneously monitoring existing projects to make sure they are properly implemented. While we are glad to see these large scale and often slow-moving restoration projects being moved along thanks to federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (as priority landscapes in the Central Washington Initiative), we do want to make sure that the projects going forward help create the fire-resilient, healthy forests that the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest Restoration Strategy outlines. Thus far, the implementation of some parts of the Mission Restoration Project has raised some concerns (primarily the commercial thinning component). However, we are advocating for the Forest Service to course correct and implement the restoration in a way that enhances the health of the forest rather than detracts from it.

*Size listed is total Project Area. The number of acres planned to be treated in noncommercial and commercial treatments within this area is significantly smaller.

*Upper Methow Restoration Project is in the early planning phases, boundaries have not yet been delineated.