Officials from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest have announced their intention to spend $500,000 generated from timber sales from thinning projects on 15 forest projects.
That half-a-million dollars in timber receipts were generated from stewardship sales related to the Packwood Thin and HooHoo Thin projects. The collaborative forest projects will include work to remove brush along forest roads, stabilize slopes, clean ditches, clear culverts, thin trees, improve wildlife and fish habitat, and remove noxious weeds near recreation sites and along roadways.
Some projects with local impacts will include invasive weed control in Cowlitz County and restoration efforts within the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District. Those restoration efforts will entail sediment control along select roads and trails, improving the unit’s seed orchards and pruning western white pines. Work will also be focused around the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and in the floodplain of the Cispus River. Additionally, work will be undertaken to rehabilitate a former shooting area along Forest Road 5290. That effort will include waste removal, stream bank stabilization and native plant planting of disturbed areas.
The selection of the 15 projects was guided in large part by the South Gifford Pinchot Collaborative and the Pinchot Partners. Nine of the projects will take place in the northern section of the forest while the other six will be undertaken in the southern section.
A complete list of the projects is available online at www.fs.usda.gov/detail/giffordpinchot/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=fseprd498236. Requests for additional information can be made by calling Joe Gates, forest stewardship coordinator, at 360-891-5114.
