ACTION ALERT: TELL THE WA STATE LEGISLATURE TO FULLY FUND THE WILDFIRE RESPONSE, FOREST RESTORATION, AND COMMUNITY RESILIENCE ACCOUNT

Currently, the Washington State Legislature is working on finalizing the state’s budget for the next biennium. As you may have seen in the news, the state anticipates a budget shortfall and is seeking areas to make budget cuts. One place they are looking to make cuts is appropriations for the Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration, and Community Resilience Account (2SHB 1168). These cuts will impact the important work that DNR does, including funding forest collaboratives, monitoring forest treatments, carrying out scientific studies and analysis on federal forest lands,  and providing funds to help communities become more resilient to wildfires. 

DNR’s role in maintaining community safety and forest resilience will be especially crucial in the coming years due to the declining federal funding and significant layoffs of federal workers. 

The original plan was to fund these programs with $125 million per biennium for at least ten years, starting in 2021. However, the legislature has gone back on that promise in both the House and Senate versions of the budget. 

CFC will be reaching out to key legislators to ask them to fully fund DNR’s Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration, and Community Resilience Account at the requested and promised level of $125 million. If you are a resident of Washington state, please contact these key legislators and join us in asking them to fully fund the account at the requested level of $125 million. 

You can email or call these legislators directly with your message. These are the legislators who are currently working on the budget. It’s important for them to hear from constituents about what state functions are important to them:

Sen. June Robinson, D: June.Robinson@leg.wa.gov (360) 786-7674

Sen. Derek Stanford, D: Derek.Stanford@leg.wa.gov (360) 786-7600

Sen. Chris Gildon, R: Chris.Gildon@leg.wa.gov (360) 786-7648

Sen. Nikki Torres, R: Nikki.Torres@leg.wa.gov (360) 786-7684

Rep. Timm Ormsby, D: Timm.Ormsby@leg.wa.gov (360) 786-7946

Rep. Mia Gregerson, D: Mia.Gregerson@leg.wa.gov (360) 786-7868

Rep. Nicole Macri, D: Nicole.Macri@leg.wa.gov (360) 786-7826

Note, we expect budget negotiations will happen very quickly, so please send your message as soon as possible to have the most chance of success – preferably by Wed, April 16th. 

We’ve created an email template for you to use, provided below. Feel free to personalize your message before sending.  

 

 

 

Email Subject: Please fully fund DNR’s Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration, and Community Resilience Account

 

Dear Senators and Representatives, 

[My name is ____, a resident of ____, WA]. I am reaching out to request that the legislature fully fund the Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration, and Community Resilience Account at the full amount requested, $125 million (2SHB 1168). This money helps DNR do critical work that helps prepare communities for wildfire, support forest collaboratives across the state, support national forests with needed capacity, conduct monitoring of forest treatments, and many other activities that directly benefit communities and all forests in the state. 

At a time when the federal government is pulling back funding, it is imperative that the state is able to step up. Therefore, please fund DNR’s Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration, and Community Resilience Account (2SHB 1168) at the requested amount of $125 million. 

Thank you for your time,

[Name]

[WA city of residence]

 

 

Taking action to contact these key legislators now could have a huge impact on forest and community health in Washington state. Please help us keep these important programs funded in the next biennium. 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Ashley at Ashley@cascadeforest.org.

ACTION ALERT: Help us protect mature-forests in the Little White Salmon watershed

The Forest Service has released an Environmental Assessment for the Little White Salmon timber sale for public comment. This project proposes timber harvest and fuels management in 13,249 acres in the Little White Salmon watershed, a diverse and unique transitional forest that sits between wet westside forests and dry eastside forests. The project also includes road decommissioning, repairing unauthorized public-created trails, and repairing stream crossings impacted by abandoned temporary roads.

CFC has been involved in the planning process for the Little White Salmon Project for the last two years. We have helped shape the project over time, working closely with the South Gifford Pinchot Collaborative and the Forest Service. 

So far, through our input and the Forest Service’s application of federal directives, 2,351 acres of mature and old-growth forest have been dropped from the project. While strategic thinning and prescribed fire are important tools for building forest resilience, this project proposes timber harvest to a degree that is notably large in scale and intensity, and utilizes experimental methodologies–applying some restoration techniques developed for dry eastside forests to this transitional watershed. The Forest Service will be essentially testing on a large scale whether or not their treatments help this watershed become more resilient to climate change. 

We agree with some of the experimentation, but we’re particularly concerned about thinning for fire risk in mature forests, especially those that are already developing some complexity and inherent resilience. From the ecological modeling that has been carried out for this planning area, we expect there might be a temporary reduction in fire risk in certain fire scenarios through some of the thinning work, but we are concerned that these impacts will be short-lived due to re-growth of vegetation and ineffective in the face of high-velocity wind-driven fires. With regards to mature forests, we’re also concerned about the introduction of invasive species (a common result of timber harvest), immediate destruction of arboreal or soil-based habitats currently in use, increased understory temperatures, and decreased understory moisture profiles.

Although the protection of some of the older forests is a major win, there is still more we can do to protect complex mature forests and large trees (unique habitat features) in the watershed. 

We hope you’ll join us in asking the Forest Service to:

  • Drop the 549 acres of remaining complex mature forests from the harvest plans;
  • Protect all Douglas-firs trees with a 30” diameter or more in matrix stands; and
  • Provide a no-cut buffer of 1.5 to 2 drip lines on all trees with a 40” diameter or more to protect their root systems from the negative impacts of heavy machinery.

 

Comments are being accepted through Oct. 31st at this website. The Environmental Assessment and all other project files including specialist reports can be found here.  

The process is quick and easy and your comments can help make a difference. If you have any questions please reach out to Ashley at ashley@cascadeforest.org. 

 

ACTION ALERT: SPEAK UP FOR A HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY TO PROTECT THE NATION’S OLD-GROWTH

A Historic Opportunity

 

The Biden Administration has taken several steps to combat climate change and advance environmental stewardship, including a number of steps to preserve the nation’s old-growth.

On Earth Day, 2022, the Administration issued an Executive Order (EO) directing federal agencies to create a consistent definition for old-growth forests that accounted for regional and ecological variation and to complete an inventory of mature and old-growth forests on federal land. The EO also required the agencies to assess threats to mature and old-growth forests and develop policies to address those identified threats. Since April 2022, the Administration has released the inventory data, conducted an assessment of threats for mature and old-growth forests, and solicited public input to start developing a plan to make old-growth forests across the country more resilient.

The Administration’s effort to develop a plan to make old-growth more resilient is now nearing its final steps. The Forest Service has put forward a Draft National Old-Growth Amendment, which would revise forest plans (management plans unique to each of the country’s 154 national forests) to “establish a consistent framework for old-growth forests across the National Forest System.”

 

What the Draft Amendment Gets Wrong

 

The Draft Amendment is presented as a plan for resilient old-growth forests across the country. Judged by its stated goals, the Draft Amendment does not meet those goals and could do more harm than good. A nationwide amendment to forest plans represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to safeguard old-growth forests, slow climate change, protect wildlife, and improve the quality of aquatic ecosystems. We need people like you to join CFC in asking the Forest Service to address the numerous flaws in the Draft Amendment by the September 20th comment deadline.

While the Draft Amendment’s stated intention to make old-growth resilient sounds positive, the proposed plan fails to adequately protect existing old-growth or recruit new old-growth.

For example, the Draft Amendment doesn’t include any language addressing the alarming deficit of old-growth on national forest lands. The Forest Service acknowledges the outsized role old-growth forests play in sequestering atmospheric carbon and their importance in preserving biodiversity, but the plan does not consider or speak to the need to create more (and more connected) old-growth by preserving and enhancing existing mature forests (those on the brink of becoming the next generation of old-growth).

Additionally, the amendment focuses on proactive stewardship (thinning, prescribed fire, and other treatments) in all old-growth types. A focus on active management for all old-growth is problematic. While proactive management to reduce wildfire risk may be appropriate in some forest types it is certainly not needed or beneficial in all. In wet forests west of the Cascade crest, these proposed management strategies could do more harm than good.  

The Draft Amendment also includes many inappropriate exceptions to the proposed standards—exceptions that could lead to meaningful losses of old-growth forests. Several of the exceptions are broad in scope. For example, an exception from the proactive stewardship requirement allows the Forest Service to ignore the stewardship standards for management in old-growth when “this standard is not relevant or beneficial to a particular forest or ecosystem type.” There is no explanation about what this means or what type of scenarios would fit, and without that explanation, it could be applied very broadly to exempt large portions of old-growth from the standards meant to protect them. While some ability to apply site-specific nuance is warranted, without parameters or explanation, this exception could easily become a large loophole.   

 

How to Comment

 

Amending each of the nation’s forest plans to protect old-growth could be a historic accomplishment, but the Draft Amendment would fail to meet this goal as currently written.

Individuals, business interests, and organizations of all viewpoints and political persuasions are currently weighing in on the Draft Amendment. It is imperative that as many voices as possible speak in favor of new meaningful protections for old-growth and urge the agency to address the fundamental flaws currently undercutting the Draft Amendment’s stated intentions. 

Take action today by submitting your comments electronically HERE by September 20th, 2024. Here are some talking points to help frame your comments.

  • I support the Draft Amendments vision of a system of resilient old-growth. The current Draft Amendment would fail to achieve that vision. 
  • The Desired Conditions should include language about increasing the amount of old-growth forests across the National Forest System since there is a deficit of old-growth currently on the landscape. 
  • Currently the plan does not consider an alternative that would require conservation of mature forests, or a portion of mature forests. I believe the Final Environmental Impact Statement should include an alternative that looks at conserving at least some portion of existing mature forests.  
  • Proactive stewardship of all old-growth forest types is inappropriate. The amendment language should be changed to acknowledge that some old-growth forests, like those west of the cascades, should be passively managed. In other words, leave old-growth west of the cascade crest alone. 
  • The standards as currently written in the preferred alternative Standard 2c. allow for too many inappropriate exceptions that could lead to meaningful loss of old-growth forests. While exceptions for tribal use are appropriate, all of the others should be removed from the plan.

If you have any questions or need help, please reach out to us at info@cascadeforest.org.

ACTION ALERT: SPEAK OUT FOR THE ECOLOGICAL & SCIENTIFIC VALUES OF SPIRIT LAKE

Mount St. Helens, the Pumice Plain, and Spirit Lake are special places Cascade Forest Conservancy has fought to protect since our founding. Now, we need your help speaking out to preserve the ongoing ecological recovery occurring here and the scientific insights this healing volcanic landscape is providing to us. 

 

The Spirit Lake Outlet Tunnel

 

The eruption of 1980 created a debris flow that blocked the natural outlet of Spirit Lake. Scientists and engineers realized that with nowhere to go, Spirit Lake’s waters threatened to overflow and destabilize this earthen dam, potentially leading to a massive mudflow that could pose a serious danger to downstream communities.

For the safety of these communities, the US Army Corps of Engineers built an outflow tunnel to prevent the most unstable parts of the debris blockage from being breached. But the existing tunnel was never meant to last forever and it has reached the end of its life expectancy. 

Between 2018 and early 2023, CFC fought specific elements of a project to temporarily repair the outlet tunnel’s gate. We took particular issue with the Forest Service’s plan to build a road across the Pumice Plain—a protected recovering ecosystem found nowhere else on Earth and the site of important ongoing research. We argued that the road (although temporary) would do long-term damage to an otherwise pristine natural laboratory, that the Forest Service had failed to adequately consider other ways to transport workers and materials to the job site, and that the plans provided by the agency did not adequately address the impacts of the road to watersheds and wildlife at the site. Although we lost that legal case, the story is not over. More decisions impacting the Pumice Plain, Spirit Lake, and Mount St. Helens are on the way. 

 

Speak out for the ecological and scientific value of Mount St. Helens, the Pumice Plain, and Spirit Lake

 

Official planning for what to do long-term with Spirit Lake’s outlet is just beginning. The Forest Service has started a process that will inform how project planners will weigh different values further into the planning process. 

We need people like you to speak up early in the planning process to advocate for a Spirit Lake outflow tunnel replacement project that keeps downstream communities safe WHILE ALSO preserving the ecological integrity and science happening in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

Your voice makes a difference! Take a moment to complete and return this attached survey by August 31st. 

Download the survey as an interactive PDF HERE.  E-mail your completed questionnaire to sm.fs.spiritlake@usda.gov no later than August 31, 2024. 

Email ashley@cascadeforest.org with questions.

UPCOMING DECISIONS IMPACTING OUR FOREST’S FUTURE

There are a lot of planning efforts both ongoing and new that will impact the future of our region’s forest ecosystems. All of these upcoming decisions will have a comment period or other opportunities to engage this summer and fall.  

Several of these decisions are around the implications of climate change and how we protect and steward our forests through a changing climate. 

 

Upcoming and ongoing planning efforts include:

 

  • Long-term management decision about Spirit Lake Outflow – planning has started to find a long-term solution to the tunnel at Spirit Lake as the original tunnel has reached its intended life span.

 

  • The National Old-Growth Amendment – planning has started on an amendment that would address how National Forests across the country manage for old-growth conditions.

 

  • The Amendment to the Northwest Forest Plan – planning has started on an amendment to update the Northwest Forest Plan, particularly around climate change, tribal inclusion, and wildfire.

 

  • The Little White Salmon Vegetation Management Project – planning has started in the Little White Salmon watershed with a focus on fire risk and resilience to climate change.

 

  • The Gifford Pinchot Forest Wide Thinning Project – planning has started on a Forest Wide effort to restore all plantation, monoculture forests, under 80 years old. This project would allow for treatment of plantations outside of the normal rotation of planning for particular watersheds.  

 

CFC will be sure to let you know how and when to engage on each of these issues as the opportunities come up. Be sure you are subscribed to our email list so you don’t miss an opportunity to use your voice to speak up for a sustainable future! 

SPEAK UP FOR MATURE FORESTS: COMMENT ON PLANS FOR THE YELLOWJACKET TIMBER SALE

The Forest Service released a Revised Draft Environmental Assessment (Revised EA) for the Yellowjacket planning area on Oct. 31st, 2023. We had raised concerns about aggressive timber treatments in mature forest stands, among other issues. The Revised EA incorporated some of our recommendations but failed to address all of them.

The Revised EA is an improvement over the earlier version. There are aspects of the plan we support, such as road decommissioning, thinning in young plantations, and aquatic habitat improvements. However, there are still aspects of the current plans we find concerning.

We’ll be speaking up to support what we like and encouraging the Forest Service to address our remaining concerns. We encourage you to participate in the public process as well.

 

CFC staff and volunteers gathering data in Yellowjacket stand in 2022.

 

 

Things we like about the revised project plans:

We are supportive of thinning in young plantation stands, aquatic restoration projects, the planned decommissioning of over 11 miles of road, and we are generally supportive of huckleberry restoration efforts. We are also supportive that the Revised EA added a provision to protect any tree that measures over 35 inches diameter at base height.

 

 

Things we don’t like about the project:

We continue to be concerned about regeneration harvest (a very intensive treatment akin to a clear-cut) in 100-year-old forest stands. We are also very concerned about the proposed regeneration harvest in close proximity to historical northern spotted owl nesting sites. We will be pushing the Forest Service to do away with regeneration harvest in older stands and northern spotted owl sites. 

 

 

Please join us in sticking up for older stands and northern spotted owl sites. The Revised EA is open for comments until November 30th and you can examine project documents and comment yourself at this website. 

GROUND-TRUTHING IN LITTLE WHITE SALMON TIMBER SALE STANDS

The Little White Salmon watershed is a 86,000-acre area spanning the transition zone between the wetter west-side forests and drier east-side forests of Washington’s southern Cascades, 80% of which is within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Due to its location, the watershed contains a unique mix of forest types and a high level of biodiversity, but it’s also at risk from significant climate impacts. 

It’s no surprise then that this watershed is at the center of conversations about how to best manage forests on the verge of change, or that there are differing opinions about what that means. 

 

 

The U.S. Forest Service is contemplating treating a huge area within the watershed through a combination of commercial and non-commercial thinning. In a break from other recent timber sales in the forest, the initial scoping plans for the Little White Salmon timber sale include considerations to thin thousands of acres of mature and transitional forests, although planners have publicly acknowledged they expect the amount to decrease as the agency moves closer to creating a final version of its plan.    

The agency is proposing thinning in mature forests to mitigate the increasing impacts from drought, insects, disease, and wildfire that this area is likely to experience.

 

 

Generally, Cascade Forest Conservancy doesn’t support plans that involve thinning activities in mature forests, as these are areas of high ecological and carbon storage value and it is unclear whether the potential benefits of thinning would offset the more immediate negative impacts of harvest.

However, we understand the situation is nuanced and there is a lot of complexity and uncertainty – particularly in this transitional watershed. Because of this, we have been visiting these stands and collecting data to help inform our efforts ensuring that forests and wildlife remain resilient to the threats of climate change.  

 

 

On the last weekend of September, CFC staff and volunteers ventured off the beaten path in the Little White Salmon watershed to collect on-the-ground information. 

We targeted some of the older stands (those between 120 and 300 years of age) for our data collection efforts to see for ourselves if the on-the-ground conditions matched up with age estimates and to gain information about forest conditions that spatial analysis cannot provide. 

Teams of volunteers spread out and conducted surveys collecting information about tree species, tree densities, tree diameters, the presence and amount of large downed wood, and species diversity in the understory in 30-foot radius circles. 

 

 

Each team worked hard to collect as many plots as possible and everyone gained some skills in estimating tree sizes and types by the end of the trip. Each team found well-functioning mature forest stands and a number of large trees in the survey area, with the biggest coming in at 57 inches in diameter. 

In the coming weeks and months we will be discussing this timber harvest proposal with the South Gifford Pinchot Collaborative and the Forest Service and working to make sure that critical habitats are protected and that management plans are well-tuned to ecosystem resilience. 

Thanks to all the volunteers who gave their time and energy to this project!

ACT NOW: PROTECT WASHINGTON’S WATERS

Act now: Urge the Washington Department of Ecology to protect the Cascade, Green and Napeequa river systems as outstanding waters.  

Washington’s rivers are central to life in our state and vital to a thriving, sustainable future for our communities. They provide clean drinking water, support local economies, are critical to the health and abundance of fish and wildlife species, and provide numerous recreation opportunities for Washingtonians and visitors.

But many of Washington’s rivers, streams, and wetlands face growing threats, including drought, diminished snowpacks, increasing temperatures, wildfire, development, and pollution. 

Fortunately, we have an opportunity to work together to safeguard a number of our state’s waterways as Outstanding Resource Waters (ORW). Outstand Resource Waters designations help protect waters of exceptional recreational, environmental, or ecological significance. Once a waterway is designated as an ORW, existing activities can continue, but new degradation of water quality is forbidden, meaning that current uses or activities, including mining, timber harvest, grazing, and recreation may continue, but new actions that could damage an ORW are prohibited. 

 

 

On July 18, the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) released a proposed regulation to designate the first-ever ORWs in the state.  Designation of these river systems would benefit Washington’s people, economy, wildlife, and salmon. Plus, if the implementation of Washington’s first ORW designations is a success it may pave the way to secure protections for other high quality waterways throughout the state! That’s one of the reasons it’s critical that you speak out in favor of these proposed designations.  

The Green River, flowing through the Green River Valley near Mount St. Helens is a special place that we’ve been working to protect from the threat of a new open-pit mine for well over a decade. Community groups have continually stated that this is no place for a mine and fought a proposed mine in this watershed for over 15 years. The District Court has found in CFC’s favor several times, most recently vacating exploratory drilling permits in February of 2021. Although the best solution remains a mineral withdrawal, designating the Green River as an ORW constitutes a tangible move by the Department of Ecology to support the community’s belief that the Green River is a unique and special place, deserving of additional protection. An ORW designation would provide an extra layer of protection for the nominated portions of the Green River and, at the very least, make it harder and more expensive to mine.

 

 

 

How to Comment:

Submit your comments online at the Department of Ecology’s website HERE by September 27th.

Select which river or rivers you’d like to comment on and then personalize your comments in the text box. You can maximize your impact by personalizing your comments.

Do you have a personal connection to any of the rivers? How do you enjoy the Green River (near Mount St. Helens), the Cascade River, and/or Napeequa River?  Sharing your connection with the rivers and why you personally would like to see them protected can go a long way. 

Here are some general talking points to support ORWs:

  • Washington’s rivers, streams, and wetlands supply drinking water to residents across the state, sustain wildlife habitat, and provide an economic boost to local communities. 
  • As a Washingtonian, I want to see the state’s precious freshwater resources safeguarded.  
  • Washington’s waters are under increasing threat as the climate warms and the population grows, placing greater stress and demand on freshwater resources.  Now is the time to protect some of the state’s most outstanding waters and prevent degradation of stretches of rivers, streams, wetlands and other freshwater bodies with high water quality or other unique characteristics. 
  • I urge Ecology to designate the Cascade, Green, and Napeequa river systems as the state’s first Outstanding Resource Waters so that Washingtonians can enjoy these waters now and for generations to come. 

 

Why is the Green River special to you? Please use the information below about the Green River to help explain why protecting this waterway matters to you personally. 

  • The Green River is a very unique river deserving of one of Washington’s first ORW designations. 
  • The Green River is an eligible Wild and Scenic River, a designated gene bank for winter steelhead populations, and provides excellent spawning habitat for endangered salmon.
  • The forests along the Green River contain some of the last remaining stands of old-growth trees in the area to survive the Mount St.Helens blast. These old-growth stands supply critical habitat for old-growth dependent species, like the northern spotted owl.
  • Recreation opportunities along the Green River are abundant. The Green River Trail, Goat Mountain Trail, and Green River Horse Camp along this spectacular river are enjoyed by mountain bikers, hikers, horseback riders, hunters, and anglers.

 

Join CFC in urging the Washington Department of Ecology to do everything they can to protect these treasured rivers for future generations. Send your message today!

It is essential that the state take steps now to protect some of its remaining high-quality rivers that provide numerous benefits to Washingtonians.  Safeguarding Washington’s rivers will ensure that these treasures are protected for current and future generations. Thank you for speaking up in support of this important cause.