COMMUNITY FORESTRY AND RESTORATION

Overgrown forest plantation

Community-based forest restoration is a valuable tool for improving the health and ecological integrity of previously logged forests in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area.

The Siskiyou Wild Rivers area contains over 525,000 acres of pristine wilderness, inventoried roadless areas and Wild & Scenic Rivers - a rich natural legacy of wild rivers and wild forests.

But the area also harbors a darker legacy. Tens of thousands of acres of previously logged forest form a degraded and dangerously overgrown patchwork on the landscape. “Dog hair thickets” of fast growing Douglas-fir shade out slower growing hardwoods in these areas, creating even-aged stands and dramatically reducing plant and animal diversity. These thickets pose an elevated risk for intense, stand-replacing wildfires which not only threaten nearby Late Successional Reserves, but also threaten rural interface communities throughout the region.

Federal land managers are beginning to address the damage created by decades of fire suppression and destructive logging practices and are shifting their focus toward developing community-based forest restoration projects to address the situation. These projects seek local community input in the design and implementation of fuels reduction projects in the forest. Through the active involvement of Siskiyou Project and other regional organizations, we can ensure that projects throughout the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area also have a strong ecological focus, working to restore forest health as well as reducing the risk of destructive wildfires in the region.

Within the proposed Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Salmon & Botanical Area, all community-based forest restoration will be implemented in a way that recognizes the unique ecological values of the area. Thinning projects will be designed to retain large trees, with an eye toward recreating diverse-aged stands of multiple species. Fire will be used strategically to recreate a natural regime of low-intensity burns in the forest, riparian areas will be protected from erosion and sedimentation, and areas within each project will remain undisturbed to provide habitat for wildlife already using the site.

In ecologically-based forest restoration projects, large fire-resistant trees are left standing and smaller diameter trees are removed. Penny Stewardship project designed and completed by Lomakatsi Restoration Project.

GOOD FOR THE FOREST, GOOD FOR COMMUNITIES:

Community-based forest restoration projects are not only good for the forest; they also benefit the rural communities living in forested areas throughout the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area. Community members have a voice in the design of projects that impact the forests that surround their homes. Restoration projects create good-paying jobs and offer workforce training opportunities to highly skilled forest workers, enabling them to find work that helps to heal the forests their livelihoods depend upon. New niche opportunities are opening up for small, sustainable businesses using small-diameter timber. And finally, communities can have a role in reducing the danger of wildfires threatening their homes and the forests they love.