The North Central Washington Forest Health Collaborative (NCWFHC) has actively supported post-fire restoration by taking action before the next lightning strike.

The Mission Project is a 50,000-acre landscape at the western edge of the Carlton Complex Fire perimeter on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. The fire burned 70 percent of the South Summit project, another 50,000 landscape which the Forest Service was just about to begin treating.

Since the Carlton Fire was contained in August 2014, NCWFHC partners have:

  1. provided funds for a contractor to interpret a landscape analysis and develop potential proposed actions for the Mission Project area;
  2. conducted a field trip to discuss and comment on the Methow Valley Ranger District’s plans for a 250-acre salvage operation in the winter of 2015;
  3. conducted a field trip to identify and recommend to the Methow Valley Ranger District post-fire restoration potential, and later, issued a support letter for the South Summit II project;
  4. conducted a Mission field trip with local landowners, and is working to develop consensus around key project elements;
  5. provided funds to integrate an aquatic assessment into the Mission project analysis;
  6. coordinated volunteers to conduct Mission project stream and road surveys this summer; and
  7. searched for resources to implement South Summit II aquatic elements, and for Mission project cultural surveys.

All of these efforts, from funds leveraged to boots-on-the-ground, enable the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest to move towards implementing projects across a 100,000-acre landscape, all within two years of the largest fire in Washington’s history.

This innovative, collaborative effort was facilitated by the Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board with funds provided by the National Forest Foundation Community Capacity Land Stewardship Program.

National Forest Foundation Tree Symbol