THE IMPACTS OF FOREST ROADS & THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING ROADLESS AREAS

The Trump administration is working to reverse the 2001 Roadless Rule that currently protects large areas of intact wildlife habitat from commercial development. The rule is an essential tool for preserving biodiversity and access to unique backcountry recreation opportunities.

Reversing the Roadless Rule would allow logging and mining in some of the last protected landscapes in the southern Washington Cascades and throughout the country. And the new forest roads that would be needed for these types of actions would create their own set of long-lasting impacts.

This is the second post in our two-part series about the Roadless Rule. Here, we offer a deeper look into the history and science of forest roads to better appreciate what is currently at stake.

There are two major things to understand about forest roads. First, there are a lot of them. Second, roads, whatever their condition or level of use, significantly impact the ecosystems they transect.

 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF FOREST ROADS & THE 2001 ROADLESS RULE

 

National forests are permeated by webs of roads in various states of use. Early in the history of the national forest system, road construction was a primary focus of the Forest Service. Roads were built anywhere and all over based on the belief that access to remote areas of the forest would allow the agency to improve conditions on the ground. Throughout the 20th century, forest road construction continued at a frenzied pace. As time wore on, roads were increasingly built for (and often by) timber companies.

 

A map of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Wilderness Areas are highlighted in green and Inventoried Roadless Areas are highlighted in blue.
Wilderness Areas and Inventoried Roadless Areas function together to create critically important strongholds of wildlife habitat free from road building and extractive development.

 

As a result, the Forest Service is now the largest road manager on Earth. The agency is tasked with overseeing a vast transportation network containing a mix of graded and paved thoroughfares, narrow, overgrown, and pot-holed dirt tracks, and everything in between.

In addition to the forest roads you may have used, national forests contain thousands of miles of ghost roads—closed or decommissioned roads that still have a distinct and noticeable presence on the landscape, even after being closed to traffic for years or decades.

 

CFC staff walking down a forest road overgrown with grasses and ferns with stands of tress on either side.
Even seldom-used or decommissioned forest roads have significant and long-lasting impacts on the surrounding forest ecosystem.

Environmentalists have been raising alarms about the growing road network in formerly remote landscapes since the Forest Service began to build them. In the late 1990s, unable to afford the cost of maintenance on the roads already in use, the agency finally put a pause on new road construction until a solution could be found. After a sustained campaign from environmentalists, the Clinton administration put in place the 2001 Roadless Rule, which practically made the moratorium on road construction permanent in select places that were newly designated as Inventoried Roadless Areas.

 

THE IMPACTS OF FOREST ROADS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ROADLESS AREAS

 

First and foremost, the presence of roads is a necessary precondition for industrial timber harvest and mining operations. The Trump administration’s primary objective in attacking the Roadless Rule is to allow these kinds of extraction activities in some of the few remaining un-roaded areas that have been protected for the past two and a half decades.

However, beyond the extractive activities they enable, the mere presence of forest roads noticeably alters the ecology of landscapes where they are found.

 

A Roosevelt elk
Even rarely-used roads create major barriers from many species of wildlife.

 

The impacts of forest roads on wildlife and habitat connectivity: Studies have demonstrated that wildlife species wary of hunters and/or noise from motor vehicles, including elk, bear, lynx, wolverine, and others, will alter their movement patterns, sometimes going far out of their way to avoid crossing or even coming close to forest roads. This is even true for remote forest roads that may not see a driver for days at a time. Large, connected areas of habitat free from roads are critically important, and increasingly rare, refuges for these species.

 

A culvert
Roads impact streams in a number of ways.

 

The impacts of forest roads on forest and stream health: In addition to development and extraction, roads bring greater numbers of people to formerly remote places. Most visitors to forests treat these places with care and respect, but some do not. Forest roads are often bordered by stands containing high amounts of litter and invasive plant species—especially when compared to areas of forest without roads. Streams that are crossed by roads are often forced into culverts, polluted, and choked with sediment. 

The impacts of forest roads on topography and hydrology: Roads, especially roads across sloped terrain, create significant landslide risk and dramatically disrupt the natural flow and movement of water in forested ecosystems.

 

A forest road along a expanse of burned forest.
The vast majority of wildfires ignitions of any cause occur within 1/2 mile of a road.

 

The impacts of forest roads on wildfire risk and severity: Studies have shown that areas with higher densities of roads are at greater risk from wildfires than areas with fewer roads, and that 90% of all wildfires start within 2 km (1.25 miles) of a road. The relationship between roads and fires is influenced by several factors. Most importantly, roads increase the likelihood of human-caused fires resulting from ignition sources like campfires, discarded cigarettes, sparks, and arson.

Road ecology also plays a role in wildfire behavior. Roads can help wildfire crews access remote areas, but the presence of roads often contributes to conditions that make fires worse. Forest roads can create hotter, drier, and windier conditions, with associated impacts extending into the forests. Roadside areas are also often infested with invasive plant species, which can contribute to worse fire conditions. 

The importance of roadless areas for human communities and the immeasurable value of backcountry: Landscapes where life is still able to flourish away from roads and other forms of development also impact the well-being of our communities. They’re especially important to the individuals who come to wilderness and roadless areas to study, explore, connect, and find solace in the remote and rare corners of national forests where the world still feels wild. 

 

Roadless Areas in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest provide access to beautiful expanse of backcountry.

 

There are a lot of roads on national forest lands, and those roads have major impacts. The continued existence of large areas free from permanent human habitation and industrial extraction matters, but their future is now uncertain. You can help Cascade Forest Conservancy protect these places by joining our email list. Be sure to keep an eye out for the action alerts we’ll send you when it’s time to speak out by submitting comments in defense of the Roadless Rule. 

 

UPDATE: On 8/27, the USDA official began the process to revoke the 2001 Roadless Rule. Speak up for Roadless Areas! Use this form to submit your official comments by September 19. 

VESTIGES OF WILDNESS: WHY THE FATE OF ROADLESS AREAS IS CRITICAL TO OUR FUTURE

The 2001 Roadless Rule created a new type of land designation called Inventoried Roadless Areas and is responsible for protecting a large number of un-roaded landscapes across a wide range of regions and ecosystems throughout the national forest system. In total, the rule safeguards 58 million acres of intact wildlife habitat and backcountry, more than any federal action besides the Wilderness Act of 1964. 

Places like roadless areas, large areas where natural processes proceed free from excessive industrial incursion, are increasingly rare. They are places where the Earth is able to retain some of its wildness. They are critically important bastions of biodiversity and some of the last remaining refuges for species with little or no other suitable habitat left. Most are also places where recreation is quiet and where human visitors move at the speed of foot, hoof, and bicycle.   

Today, the rule that established and protects Inventoried Roadless Areas is under attack.

 

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest contains a significant area of wilderness and roadless areas

 

We’re fortunate that significant portions of the landscapes we work to protect in the southern Washington Cascades are currently designated as Wilderness or Inventoried Roadless Areas. The existence of these large areas of connected and un-roaded lands plays a significant role in our region’s appeal to outdoor enthusiasts from around the world. For those of us fortunate to have the opportunity and ability to venture in, spending time in the Roadless and Wilderness areas of the Gifford Pinchot can be a moving and meaningful experience. Stepping onto a place on Earth miles from the nearest road can inspire wonder, awe, inspiration, humility, a feeling of connection to and appreciation for the natural world, or any number of other unique, powerful, even spiritual experiences that make our lives fuller and richer.

 

Roadless areas in the GPNF provide unique outdoor recreation opportunities

 

The Gifford Pinchot’s roadless areas also play a role in sustaining our region’s wildlife and biodiversity. The ecological benefits of large intact areas of wildlife habitat extend far beyond the boundaries put in place to preserve them. In addition to providing refuge for species that need a lot of space away from human development to thrive, un-roaded areas provide space where species impacted by over-hunting or trapping, like fishers, martens, or the iconic grey wolf, have a better chance of making a recovery.

 

A meadow in one of the GPNS’s Inventoried Roadless Areas

 

Un-roaded areas provide space where species like the grey wolf could make a recovery

 

The continued existence of these Inventoried Roadless Areas is now threatened by the Trump administration’s stated intention to reverse the Roadless Rule, enabling and encouraging exploitation of intact ecosystems that have long been off-limits to commercial interests. The upcoming fight over the rule will have profound impacts for wildlife populations, the preservation of biodiversity, and outdoor recreation here in the Pacific Northwest and across the country. 

CFC is ready to respond once the administration follows through on its plans. Our partners and allies are ready to respond. And we’ll share the ways you can speak up and take action in defense of roadless areas when the moment for public comment arrives.

Part two of our series on the 2001 Roadless Rule, where we dive deeper into the history of the rule and the impacts of roads themselves on forest ecosystems, is coming next week. 

READ OUR OFFICIAL COMMENTS ABOUT THE NORTHWEST FOREST PLAN AMENDMENT

Cascade Forest Conservancy has submitted official comments responding to the Northwest Forest Plan Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Thank you to all who joined CFC in speaking out for enhanced protections for mature and old-growth forests and more Tribal co-management with federal agencies.

You can read CFC’s comments here.

 

SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON NO LONGER HAS A WOLF PACK

In the Spring of 2023, we shared some exciting news: wolves had finally returned to southwest Washington after a century of absence. The state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) confirmed that a male, WA109M, and an adult female had been seen traveling together in winter (meeting the state’s definition for a pack) in a sparsely populated area along the southeastern border of the Yakama Reservation. 

 

WA109M, photographed by a trail camera in 2021. WDFW

 

Sadly, the Big Muddy Pack, named for the Big Muddy River, is no more. 

Beginning in October 2023, monthly WDFW monitoring reports began to note that agency officials were unable to locate the pack’s female. Months later, the Washington Gray Wolf Conservation and Management 2023 Annual Report, released April 2024, confirmed what some had feared: southwest Washington no longer had a wolf pack. Then this October, WDFW, along with the US Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that both members of the pack have been illegally killed and are offering a $10,000 reward for information related to the death of either animal. 

The protected status of gray wolves, both federally and at the state level, is contentious. Here in Washington, a species recovery plan adopted in 2011 divided the state into three regions; Eastern Washington (where the majority of the state’s wolf population reside), Northern Cascades, and Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast. The state’s recovery plan calls for the presence of two breeding packs in each of the three regions for three consecutive years prior to delisting. So far, that condition has not been met. There are currently 33 confirmed packs in the Eastern Washington and Northern Cascades.  

 

Wolf pack territories as of 2023. WDFW

 

Washington’s overall wolf population is on the rise, despite the loss of the Big Muddy Pack and the enduring absence of wolves in the South Cascades and Northwest Coast recovery region. The state’s latest report shows wolf numbers are up 20% since the previous count in 2022, which, this February, led WDFW to formally recommend that the state reclassify wolves from “endangered” to “sensitive.” So far, no changes to wolves’ protected status has been made.

Wolves are a keystone species and their presence can lead to a cascade of positive ecological impacts in the areas they occupy. The loss of the Big Muddy Pack is a setback for the species’ recovery in southwest Washington, but it’s not the end of the story. As the population of wolves in other parts of the state grows (provided adequate protections remain in place) it is all but inevitable that other wolves will travel south and west, seeking territories of their own. The deaths of WA109M and his mate, as well as the ongoing efforts to delist the species, illustrate that the strong feelings people and policymakers have about the presence of wolves will shape their future and that their protected status is far from settled. 

A WIN-WIN FOR SALMON AND SW WASHINGTON COMMUNITIES

Working with the Department of Health, drinking water providers at Lewis County Public Works, and Lichen Land & Water, Cascade Forest Conservancy has been working for the last year to assess restoration potential in the Salmon Creek watershed. This is the Salmon Creek that flows into the Cowlitz River and serves as a drinking water source for the cities of Vader and Castle Rock, WA. Most of the project area is on properties owned by Weyerhaeuser.

 

 

Our hope is to identify areas throughout the watershed where instream restoration, and low-tech process-based restoration in particular, can improve both drinking water and habitat quality. These riparian corridors are important for anadromous salmon, resident fish species, amphibians, and a multitude of species that depend on healthy and biodiverse river corridors.

 

 

Through restoration, our aim is to improve the quality of drinking water by addressing the current high levels of sedimentation in the water and to attenuate flows, thereby reducing costs for the municipalities and reducing the amount of chemicals and filters needed to bring high-quality drinking water to the residents of Castle Rock and Vader.

 

 

IT’S HUCKLEBERRY SEASON!

I, like many of us, am a proud huckleberry fanatic, so it’s no surprise that huckleberry season (late July through September) is my favorite time of year to be in the forest.

I love huckleberries. If a huckleberry milkshake is on a menu, I’m ordering it. Did I want a milkshake when I came in? Doesn’t matter. Huckleberry lotion? Slather it on. Huckleberry pie? Huckleberry soda? Huckleberry candies? Absolutely! Huckleberry patch along a hiking trail? There goes my schedule for the day. 

To celebrate the huckleberry season and the ongoing efforts of Cascade Forest Conservancy’s staff and volunteers to monitor the efficacy of huckleberry patch restoration efforts, please enjoy these delicious huckleberry facts!

 

1. Huckleberries have been a culturally significant food source since time immemorial

 

Huckleberries are considered a sacred and culturally significant “first food” among many Indigenous communities in the West, including the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Indigenous communities maintained and enhanced huckleberry fields for centuries by using fire and other techniques to create optimal growing conditions for plentiful berry harvests. A number of adaptations, including fire-resistant foliage, make huckleberry plants resilient to low-intensity fires. Regular burns can even benefit berry production by eliminating competition from less fire-resistant species and allowing more light to reach the forest understory.

Today, huckleberry production is well below the historic estimates we are able to make based on anecdotal observations from Tribes, forest inventory data and historical photos (aerial and other). This is true in forests across the region and at a number of specific, historically important berry patches like the Sawtooth Berry Fields within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. This decrease is mainly due to fire suppression and the resulting conifer encroachment and increased competition from other shrubs.

 

An Indigenous woman drying huckleberries in southwest Washington, 1937

 

In the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, the U.S. Forest Service is working to restore several huckleberry patches through targeted thinning activities meant to help recreate the growing conditions that existed before the suppression of forest fires and the forced removal of native peoples from their lands. 

Cascade Forest Conservancy and our science and stewardship volunteers have been working over the course of several years to assess the impact of these efforts through ongoing monitoring of berry production in the project area. 

 

2. Huckleberries are an economically important forest product

There are efforts underway attempting to produce commercially viable domesticated huckleberries or crossbreed huckleberries with domestic blueberries. However, at this point in time, every huckleberry you have ever eaten or consumed has come from a wild plant somewhere in the forest.

Commercial harvest permits in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest allow individuals to pick up to 75 pounds of berries each harvest season. Depending on the location, year, and whether a picker is selling to a wholesaler or directly to consumers, huckleberries harvested in the forest can fetch local pickers anywhere between $11 to $50 per pound. 

 

3. Huckleberries are exceptionally delicious and nutritious

The twelve species of huckleberries that grow in the Gifford Pinchot National Forests are not true huckleberries, but are in fact native blueberries belonging to the genus Vaccinium. True huckleberries are native to the eastern US and belong to the genus Gaylussacia.

Whatever we call them, huckleberries are exceptionally delicious and nutritious. For example, western huckleberries pack in four times the amount of the beneficial antioxidant anthocyanin than commercially produced varieties of blueberries. Compared to their domesticated blueberry cousins, wild huckleberries have a darker color and a deeper, more intense flavor.

 

The nutrition provided by huckleberries benefits the health of both human and non-human species. The fruits provide important forage for birds, bears, and many other species of native wildlife.

 

4. Huckleberry cobbler will change your life

While science has not empirically proved it (yet), among us huckleberry fanatics, it is a widely accepted fact that huckleberry cobbler is the most delicious thing a person can eat. 

Obtain a free personal use huckleberry picking permit to get everything you need for your life-changing cobbler here. Non-commercial huckleberry permits allow each permit holder to collect one gallon of berries per day, and up to three gallons of berries per year. Ask a ranger where the berries are ripe, and make sure to pay attention to restrictions indicating where you can and can’t pick. 

NEWS RELEASE: CFC Objects to Upcoming Timber Sale In Gifford Pinchot National Forest

NEWS RELEASE | March 25, 2024

Vancouver, WA – Cascade Forest Conservancy, a Vancouver-based conservation nonprofit, is objecting to plans for the upcoming Yellowjacket timber sale, which will occur on national forest lands in Lewis and Skamania counties east of Mount St. Helens in the Camp Creek-Cispus River and Yellowjacket Creek watersheds. The conservation group says that the Forest Service provided inadequate analysis about certain aspects of the project, which they argue could result in harm to sensitive species and waterways in the forest. Plans for the proposed project include a total of 4,651 acres of timber harvest in addition to other infrastructure and habitat improvement activities. 

Ashley Short, Cascade Forest Conservancy’s Policy Manager, said the Forest Service’s analysis of the timber sale’s impacts on waterways was conducted at a level that was too broad. “Analysis this broad hides what’s really going on at the various places affected by a project like this and ignores what could happen to specific waterways and sensitive species if Cascade Forest Conservancy didn’t speak up,” she said, adding that failing to object could contribute to a bad precedent regarding the level of analysis the agency applies to future projects.

Cascade Forest Conservancy’s objection, authored by Short and filed on Friday, March 22, argued that the agency’s plans for the timber sale failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires federal agencies to provide site-specific analysis for impacts resulting from actions taken on public land, but “instead rolled site-specific impacts into a larger watershed, diluting the true impacts of the project.”

According to Short, the Forest Service may choose to allow certain impacts to result from timber sales, but are obligated to study those impacts and present their analysis to the public for comment and engagement first.

Molly Whitney, Cascade Forest Conservancy’s Executive Director, says the conservation group has a positive working relationship with the Forest Service and expressed optimism that the concerns raised in her organization’s objection would be resolved without the need for litigation. Parties who object to timber sales discuss their concerns at an objection mediation meeting with the Forest Service. 

“In this instance, the Forest Service failed to provide adequate site-specific analysis relating to the impacts of logging activities near several important streams. There is reason to believe that some of the streams located near timber stands where the agency is planning high-intensity harvest activities contain rare and sensitive species, like the Cascade torrent salamanders. We want the agency to provide the site-specific analysis required by law and that is needed to fully understand and address the impacts of this sale on places like Pinto and Stepladder Creek.” Said Whitney. “We want to see a specific analysis of how sedimentation from timber harvest activities will impact these waterways and the species depending on them. And we are asking the agency to address any site-specific negative impacts they find by reducing the intensity of timber harvest in certain areas.”

 

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SALMON ARE ALREADY BENEFITING FROM HABITAT ENHANCEMENT AT STUMP CREEK

After building instream structures in a dry creek bed this past summer, we headed back to Stump Creek in early November to see how the structures faired following the first bout of rain. As we headed down to the project site, we saw new channels that had formed, sediment had built up behind structures, and huge, deep pools had appeared. And in those huge pools – we saw huge coho salmon!

 

 

Tributaries of large rivers provide off-channel spawning habitat that is critical for the end of an adult salmon’s life and their juvenile offspring. Stump Creek is a tributary that flows into the South Fork Toutle River,  then into the Toutle River, Cowlitz River, Columbia River, and ultimately to the Pacific Ocean. That’s roughly 100 miles of waterways that these adult salmon travel to the ocean to grow big and then back to freshwater to spawn. Their journey from Pacific Ocean to Stump Creek is completely undammed, which is a rarity for anadromous fish to encounter. We are luckily seeing a movement to get more dams removed in the Pacific Northwest to restore access to more historical spawning grounds. 

The fish that make it to Stump Creek in the winter are met with a flowing stream and many reaches with spawning gravel. Once the fry hatch, they have plenty of water to swim and forage. By the time August roles around, the creek begins to dry up, leaving juvenile salmon stranded in small pools. During the past two summers we have been at Stump Creek,  we have found many dried out stream reaches that have piles of desiccated salmon fry. For this reason and it’s degraded state caused by anthropogenic and natural disturbances, Stump Creek has been a high priority for CFC and project partner, Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group.

 

A LOW-TECH, PROCESS-BASED APPROACH

Following the promising results from last year’s successful Pilot Phase CFC staff and volunteers spent three weekends in August and September working to complete Phase 1 of our restoration plan for Stump Creek. 

During the Pilot Phase and Phase 1, we worked to restore and improve this important fish habitat using a low-tech, process-based approach.

 

 

COMPLETING PHASE 1

Given the impacts we observed from the Pilot Phase, we were excited to add more wood to the stream. Over the course of three weekends, we installed a total of 32 structures along 1500 feet upstream of the Pilot Phase.

The first group of volunteers and staff arrived at the site in August and found a situation similar to what we had encountered the year before; dried-out stream reaches and fish stranded in tiny pools. We didn’t assume our first ten structures would completely fix Stump Creek, but the sight we encountered reiterated the huge need for more woody debris to help enhance and restore the system.

 

 

Our first team of volunteers worked hard in sweltering heat under hazy skies to construct the first 12 structures upstream from the Pilot Phase. These structure types ranged from:

  • beaver dam analogs – wood structures that most closely resemble a beaver dam, used on smaller, less powerful side channels 
  • channel process structures – larger wood structures made from numerous alder logs and slash that were built up on one side of the bank to promote the movement of water to the opposite side of the structure
  • channel spanning structures – larger beaver-esque structures made of numerous alder logs and slash that hold back sediment and create large pools
  • habitat cover structures – tops of the alder trees that are placed over the stream to provide cover for our aquatic friends 

The second weekend of work brought nicer weather and an even bigger group of volunteers! They managed to finish up the rest of the structures for a total of 32 structures. A few weekends later, a handful of volunteers and I went to put some finishing touches on the structures, set up wildlife cameras so we could watch the system change through time, and create a few extra habitat cover structures to try and help the dozens of fish that still remained in the tiny pools.

 

ENCOURAGING EARLY RESULTS

A final staff trip was conducted on November 10th. It had been raining for weeks, so it was time to see how the structures were holding up. We started by checking out the structures constructed during the 2022 Pilot Phase. As we’d observed earlier in the year, water in the Pilot Phase area was spreading all over the landscape and creating new channels. 

We headed west toward the Phase 1 structures. We first passed several of our larger channel process and channel-spanning structures. Not only were they all in place, they were directing water in the direction and manner we had designed them to when we planned the project! 

 

 

As we went further upstream, we came to our BDA section that we created on a side channel of Stump Creek. Our four BDAs that were working exactly as designed. We had created four cascading pools and spread the water outside of the previously confined channel. It was the perfect habitat for salmon!

 

 

So perfect in fact, that it was where we saw the first adult coho salmon of the day! We ended up seeing numerous other adult coho salmon utilizing the habitat enhancements our structures created. Some of them were swimming in the pools formed by the BDAs, others were preparing their redds (gravel bed to lay eggs) for spawning, and another was headed up stream to find find a location to spawn.

It was an incredibly rewarding sight. The lives of these coho would end here in Stump Creek, but their eggs are currently being incubated and will hatch in the next month or so. Once they do, our instream structures will be there to provide habitat for the new juvenile coho until they swim to the ocean. 

 

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. 

A WEEKEND IN THE HUCKLEBERRY FILEDS

I recently joined Cascade Forest Conservancy staff and volunteers in the field to survey big huckleberry fields in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Huckleberries are an important (and delicious!) source of nourishment for many species in the Pacific Northwest–including us humans. However, huckleberry production levels today are well below historic numbers. 

 

 

Like most fruit-producing species, big huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) fruit production is heavily influenced by the amount of sun a plant receives. Because the plant’s foliage is naturally resilient to low-intensity fires, Indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest set fires to clear and maintain huckleberry fields and maximize fruit production for centuries until their lands were taken and the US government adopted a policy of aggressive fire suppression.   

The fire suppression policies that began more than a century ago have allowed conifers and other species to encroach on what were once carefully maintained and incredibly productive huckleberry fields that had sustained people and animals for generations. But in the past couple of decades, there has been a growing interest in restoring some historic huckleberry picking sites–including areas in Washington’s Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

 

 

Between 2010 and 2016, the U.S. Forest Service worked with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and other stakeholders to perform thinning activities designed to benefit huckleberries and CFC was tasked with monitoring the forest stands post-harvest to assess how effective these efforts have been in enhancing huckleberry.

To execute these surveys, CFC has enlisted volunteers since 2017 to collect data throughout the previously harvested forest stands to collect hundreds of data points. This year’s trip was a follow-up to an initial survey conducted at the Sawtooth Berry Fields in 2017 and 2018. The berry fields are just north of Indian Heaven Wilderness and are regarded as one of the most productive berry fields in the Pacific Northwest. To conduct the surveys, we started with a map of plot locations and a kit that included an iPad for collecting data, a rope to ‘draw’ the plot, a stake to mark the plot, a densitometer (a tool to measure canopy density), and a few other nifty gadgets.

 

 

After an overview of the project and a tutorial on how to do the surveys, we had to figure out who should do what job. I felt prepared, but also stressed since I was leading the group. The past few days I had practiced doing each job, but now it was time to put it into action. Learning how to use a compass was, interestingly enough, no easy feat. Still, I felt nervous because I wanted to ensure our group collected all the data we needed, without becoming a ‘dictator of the plot,’ so to speak.

Soon, we fell into a routine where we each had our designated jobs and could rely on each other. If I was tired, someone would trade jobs with me so I could rest, and vice versa. One of my favorite areas we visited was a mossy grove, with golden sunlight streaming through. If only I could catch that sunlight, bottle it up, and create… gold. No, not even gold shines like that. Purple lupine leaves gathered water and sparkled like otherworldly jewels. The leaves of one tree seemed to reflect the sunlight and created jade and emerald-like leaves. I smiled, realizing with these jewels, I must be one of the richest people in the world. 

 

 

Our next plot had the most delicious and red wild strawberries anyone could imagine. I couldn’t resist picking a few. Gabe asked if I got the densitometer reading, but he mixed up the word, calling it an appendectomer. I smile and take the reading as Gabe asks what it’s called again. “A densitometer,” I say, pronouncing the word.

We all offered up a collective sigh of relief as we finished what would be the last plot. Tired but satisfied with our work, we walked along the road, stopping to eat huckleberries on the way. A truck passed us with kids riding in the back who smiled and waved at me. I waved back, wondering why they thought they knew me. Well, maybe they don’t have to know how to wave. Maybe it’s enough we’re all out here to search for huckleberries. 

The next day was damp and misty, giving the forest an almost ethereal mystery. We trekked through a new project site, and by late afternoon, we finished our final plots. After two days of conducting huckleberry surveys, we could find north at the drop of a hat, establish the plot with the rope in no time, and whip out the iPad to collect data like no one’s business. We were a certified team and an efficient one at that. The feeling of accomplishment was palpable, and I think we all could agree that it was a successful two days (and one night) in the field! Our great volunteers and staff make this kind of great work possible, and it made me feel so proud to be able to become a part of the cause.