February 2017 Newsletter

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Help Us Reform Suction Dredge Mining Laws

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The Cascade Forest Conservancy has been working with our partners to protect Washington’s watersheds and critical fish populations from the harmful effects of suction dredge mining. Early in the 2017 legislative session, two bills were introduced in the Washington State House of Representatives that would implement much-needed reforms to suction dredging mining regulations. In January we testified in support of these bills in Olympia. Please contact your Washington State representatives and urge them to vote YES on HB 1077 and HB 1106, especially Rep. Brian Blake, the Chair of the Natural Resources Committee for these bills, representing the 19th District. You can find contact info for your local WA rep here. Learn more about our efforts to reform suction dredge mining regulations here.

Suction dredge mining releases a plume of sediment downstream, along with the toxic metals that were previously settled out of the water column. This activity also harms fish habitat by vacuuming up the river bottom and destroying redds and refugia. Take a look at Rogue Riverkeeper’s pamphlet on suction dredge mining here for more detailed information. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on fish habitat restoration throughout the state, and these investments can be destroyed in moments by a miner with a suction dredge. In Washington this practice is allowed without oversight, tracking, or accountability. A miner only needs to have a copy of the Gold and Fish pamphlet – no permits, fees, or monitoring required.

HB 1077 will require the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to begin tracking and monitoring all suction dredging activities individually and remove motorized mineral prospecting from programmatic coverage under the Gold and Fish pamphlet.

HB 1106 will require miners to comply with the Clean Water Act and obtain individual permits through the Washington State Department of Ecology.

We need your help to pass these important reforms!

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CFC Volunteers’ Work Leads to Road Restoration

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Forest roads are passageways to the heart of many of my favorite parts of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Some of the most amazing places I’ve encountered in the forest are merely stops along a remote forest road.

The road system of the GPNF, though, is out of date, too large to maintain, and starting to significantly impact both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. At the moment, the GPNF has over 4,000 miles of system road! This is quite high for a national forest, yet the recent rate of road closure here has been very low. The goal of our road surveys and advocacy is to identify the roads that are causing the most negative impact on ecosystems, highlight roads at-risk for failure, consider current access needs and preferences, and prioritize road segments for closing, decommissioning, and repair. 20160724_103652 2
In a recent management plan for the GPNF, the Forest Service proposed road restoration in the Upper Lewis River area, northeast of Indian Heaven Wilderness. The Upper Lewis River Roads Pilot Project is a plan to repair degraded roads, block unclassified roads, and close or decommission about 17 miles of road. We are glad to report that the work of our road survey volunteers (which was carried out in 2014, 2015, and 2016) was instrumental in identifying priority roads for closure. The plan also outlines steps to properly block the unclassified routes that have been illegally reopened through OHV use and the circumventing of blockades. These unclassified roads were documented and mapped by volunteers during our road surveys in 2015 and 2016. Thank you to all of you who took part in these efforts!
Our official comment letter can be found here, our 2016 road survey report can be found here, and the Forest Service’s draft decision can be found here.
– Shiloh Halsey, Conservation Science Director

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Bear Creek Decision Notice Signed

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]In January, the Forest Service signed the Decision Notice for the Bear Creek Restoration Thin. Throughout the development of this project we worked closely with members of the South Gifford Pinchot Collaborative and Forest Service staff to develop a proposal that improves fish and wildlife habitat, protects water quality, and benefits local communities. We supported many components of this project including thinning in dense plantation stands, culvert replacement, and road decommissioning. Although we were concerned with proposed heavy thinning in near spotted owl historic nest sites, we were able to resolve these concerns through conversations with other collaborative members. We agreed on a modified proposal that reduced thinning near historic nest sites, lessening the risk to spotted owls and their prey species. Learn more about this project here.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”5/6″][vc_column_text]

Sign Our Petition to Senator Cantwell

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Please urge Senator Cantwell to permanently protect the Green River valley from mining. With your support, this treasured piece of public land near Mount St. Helens can be protected from dangerous mining proposals. Sign our petition and watch our video here.
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Board and Staff Transitions

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]We have bittersweet news from our board of directors. Jurgen Hess is stepping down from his role as Director after many years of dedication to our organization and our mission to protect the forests, streams, wildlife and communities in the heart of the Cascades. He will be missed, but will remain active with Friends of Mt. Adams and other groups. Thank you Jurgen!
On the other hand, we are thrilled that John Miller will be joining our Board. John is a nonprofit management and development consultant with more than 30 years’ experience leading and growing organizations. His connection to the Gifford Pinchot started in 1972, when his family first camped on Yale reservoir, escaping the hot summer days in the forests flanking Mt. St. Helens. His parents fell in love with the area and built a log cabin near Cougar, which he still escapes to for play, relaxation and, occasionally, a quiet office away from the bustle of Portland.
Please also welcome our new staff! We recently expanded our canvass team (Angela Azure and Lusia Zaleskaya) and hired a new Data and Office Manager (Rochelle Hart).
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Northwest towns expect new timber jobs under Trump: How that might happen

By Hal Bernton

[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][vc_column_text]HOME VALLEY, Skamania County — The mill is idle now, but 30 workers used to turn logs into softwood veneer here in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge. They held down the kind of family-wage jobs that President-elect Donald Trump talked about reviving in campaign speeches that often included calls for rolling back environmental rules.
“Timber is a crucial industry in Oregon but it is being hammered, why are we surprised, by federal regulations,” Trump declared during a May stopover in Eugene, Ore.

So in the aftermath, what would it take for Trump to make good on his campaign talk, at least in this sliver of rural America, and bring the Home Valley mill back into operation?

These timber sales call for selective logging rather than stripping all the trees off a harvest site, as often happened in decades past.

“We don’t need to clear-cut. Those days are gone,” said Ron Schneider, vice president of High Cascade Forest, which owns the shuttered mill as well as a second one in Skamania County that continues to operate with logs from public and private lands.

In well-designed timber sales, this logging can serve a dual purpose. These selective harvests yield wood for mills, and let in more light to increase plant diversity in cutover lands that have regrown thick, tight stands of Douglas fir.
“A lot of these stands were planted as monocultures, and they need thinning,” said Matt Little, executive director of the Cascade Forest Conservancy, which focuses on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Schneider and Little are involved in a collaborative approach to these harvests that brings Forest Service staff, environmentalists, county officials and others to the woods to visit proposed sale sites and talk about concerns. This dialogue has helped to curb legal challenges to block timber sales. For the past half decade, there have been no such lawsuits.

James Peña, Pacific Northwest regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service, says collaboration on the Gifford Pinchot is part of a broader effort that has spread across Washington and Oregon forests. The work of some 35 groups involved doesn’t grab headlines, but it has helped to build trust — and a greater consensus — on how to manage these public lands.
“I see this as a way forward,” Peña said. “It doesn’t do us any good to go after (timber sale) projects that were just going to get wrapped up in litigation.”
On the Gifford Pinchot forest, so long as the collaborative process is not short-circuited, Little says he could envision higher numbers of trees each year coming off the forest.
For the mill to reopen, the cutting must include some of the older, bigger-diameter trees — typically around 60 years of age or more — that are needed to run veneer mills.
“Absolutely, I would like to see it open. I prefer the timber that builds our homes to be coming from local, sustainably harvested forests,” Little said. “It’s better for the local communities. And it’s better for the forest.”

Lost trust

During the last century, Skamania County enjoyed the kind of prosperity that Donald Trump seemed to be summoning up with his slogan “Make America Great Again.”
The economy was keyed to logging federal lands, which occupy about 80 percent of the land within the county of some 11,330 people.
From the middle of the century through the late 1980s, the annual harvests often were more than 10 times the current levels on the Gifford Pinchot.
In addition to all the timber and mill jobs, the county received a share of the federal logging revenue to bolster local government spending for schools and other services.
But the clear-cutting of centuries-old trees in federal forests ignited an epic environmental backlash. And timber sales were blockedby a lawsuit that sought protection for the spotted owl under the federal Endangered Species Act.
In 1994, under the Clinton administration, the Northwest Forest Plan set up major conservation measures that launched a new era of Forest Service management and reduced logging. Early in that decade, Skamania lost 10 percent of its job base, according to a state report, and unemployment reached 22 percent in February 1992.
Skamania County has struggled through a difficult transition away from a timber-based economy, more so than others in the Gorge.
In 2014, nearly 70 percent of earned income came from residents who commuted to jobs, and many of those who opted to stay closer ended up in low-paid work in the service industry.
“This town has definitely become reliant on tourism jobs,” said Heather Shields, 27, a waitress in the county seat of Stevenson. “Logging jobs are few and far between.”
Shields says she and most of her high-school friends voted for Trump, who ended up with 52 percent of the county vote compared with 39 percent for Hillary Clinton.
The shift to tourism also has not done much to make up for the downturn in timber revenue that flowed to the county, where less than 2 percent of its acreage is in a tax base of residential and commercial properties. And that has hit schools hard.
“My grandchildren don’t have the kind of extracurricular activities that there used to be. The schools can’t afford it,” says Lori Cochran, a clerk at the Home Valley Store across the highway from the mill.
To cobble together a budget, the county has become dependent on payments from Congress, which only partially compensate for the lost timber revenues.
As they scramble for money, Skamania’s three county commissioners have emerged as big critics of federal forestland management.
Two years ago, they passed a resolution declaring “a state of emergency” on federal forestlands They stated that they had lost trust in an agency they accused of “improperly avoiding and limiting” timber harvests.
Under a Trump presidency, Skamania Commissioner Chris Brong is hoping the Forest Service will give the county more say in managing the federal lands.
“We need to be on more of an equal footing, that would be my highest priority,” Brong said.

Finding the money

Though Gifford Pinchot logging is not expanding fast enough to suit the county commissioners, it is on the rise.
During the past six years, as the legal challenges have diminished, Gifford Pinchot National Forest timber-sale volumes have more than tripled, to 32.8 million board feet in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
To reopen the veneer mill, High Cascade would need to secure an additional 15 million board feet of federal timber.
“It has very good modern equipment. It’s just idle because we don’t have a supply of logs,” said Schneider, the High Cascade vice president.
That additional timber could come from the Gifford Pinchot without exceeding the conservation restrictions of the Northwest Forest Plan. But even if the collaborative process can fend off new lawsuits, the Forest Service would still need more funding to draw up the sales.
That’s been a big challenge.
Forest Service budgets have been consumed by billions of dollars spent to fight wildfires across the country. U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., helped lead a bipartisan effort to rework the budget so accounts that fund timber sales, recreation and other activities aren’t tapped to pay for putting out wildfires.
So far, there have been stopgap measures to shore up holes in the Forest Service budget. But unless there is action soon, the issue will await a new Congress and President Trump.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_gallery interval=”0″ images=”164,161,145″ img_size=”full” onclick=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”yes” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=”” css=”.vc_custom_1465592094531{background-color: #96d1ae !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=”125px”][latest_post_two number_of_columns=”3″ order_by=”date” order=”ASC” display_featured_images=”yes” number_of_posts=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

KBOO Mine Interview

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KBOO Mine Interview

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][vc_column_text]CFC was on KBOO Community Radio talking about our work to stop the proposed mine near Mt St Helens. Listen to these clips with our Exec Dir Matt Little and Development Dir Michal Orczyk, interviewed by Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein!

4-dangers-of-the-mining-process

5-how-cfc-is-working-to-stop-the-mine

6-next-stage-of-opposition

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Sign The Petition

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July Newsletter

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July 2016 Newsletter

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][vc_column_text]New Name, Same Mission
As you may have seen, we have changed our name, look, and website. This has come as the result of almost two years of surveys and polls to find the best words and images that capture our mission protecting and sustaining the forests, streams, wildlife, and communities in the heart of the Cascades through conservation, education, and advocacy. Thank you to those of you who have helped us through this process.
The name “Gifford Pinchot Task Force” has served us well for over 30 years, and was very appropriate during the decade when we were actually a task force of volunteers committed to protecting the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Over time, though, we have grown into a nonprofit advocacy organization that ensures the sustainability of the entire ecosystem of Washington’s South Cascades. The name and logo of the Cascade Forest Conservancy reflect this transition, as well as our new tagline “Conserving the Wild Places of Washington’s South Cascades.”
Please check out our new website at www.cascadeforest.org, and thank you for continuing to partner with us as we move into the next 30 years of protecting the forests and streams of Southwest Washington. For more information on the new name and our organization moving forward, read our press release here.

Upper White Salmon Timber Sale
We’ve been hard at work on collaborative forest management in the Upper White Planning Area on the south side of Mount Adams. We are working with the Forest Service and local partners to find common ground and to work together to restore this magnificent area and protect the unique ecological features there. We’ve
come a long way and will be ironing out comments and positions over the next few weeks. We’d like to thank the volunteers who signed up for our forest surveys and helped us collect important data about the health of this forest and the distribution of old growth ponderosa pines. For on this and other timber projects click here.

Auction and Banquet November 3!
Save the date! We will be holding our second annual auction and banquet on November 3 at the Columbia Sportswear flagship store in downtown Portland. Click here to get more details, buy a ticket or become a sponsor. Attending our event is a great way to support the CFC and our mission while also having a blast – you’ll enjoy delicious food and drink, fun games, live and silent auctions and more. Our auction brings together over 130 friends and supporters to recognize the importance of conserving the wild places we cherish. Last year we celebrated 30 years of conservation at our first annual event, a big success and lively evening. At this year’s celebration we will look toward the future as we carry on our mission under a new name.

Volunteer trips in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest
We are halfway through our field season, and we’ve had a great time so far carrying out surveys in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We’ve traveled to the forests of Mount Adams to examine forest health, strolled the gravel roads along Trout Creek exploring culverts and stream sedimentation, and hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in search of invasive plants. We have upcoming trips in July and August, and we would gladly welcome your involvement! Send us an email and sign up to take part. Road survey trip is July 23 and 24, meadow enhancement trip is Aug 27 and 28, and our post-fire seeding trip is Sept 30 – Oct 2. Community participation is critical to our conservation and restoration efforts, so consider lending a hand and exploring the forest with a mission.

Road survey team for our June 18th trip

Welcome New Staff!
A warm CFC welcome to three new staff members.

Nicole Budine joins CFC as our Policy and Campaign Manager, where she will be managing our mining and sustainable forest campaigns. Nicole is a biologist with a J.D. from the University of Oregon, and she previously worked at Oregon Wild and Trustees for Alaska.

Michal Orczyk recently moved from California to join us as our Development Manager, and comes with experience organizing fundraising events and managing development programs at the International Center for Journalists and the College Preparatory School.

Xavier Reed joins our canvass team as an Outreach Advocate. Xavier has a degree in biology and worked previously for Representative Sherrie Sprenger. We are lucky to have such talented staff on our growing CFC team!

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