The Umpqua National Forest has received $4.89 million from the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture for efforts to reduce wildfire risks now and into the future.
The Elk Tribal and Community Healthy Forest Restoration project will implement large-scale, prescribed burning and fuel reduction strategies -such as understory vegetation removal- throughout the Elk Creek watershed.
The project area is a blend of federal, tribal, residential and industrial lands and includes the local communities of Tiller, Canyonville, Trail and Myrtle Creek. The Elk Creek tributary of the South Umpqua River has been used by generations of Cow Creek Umpqua people as a critical source of foods and life values.
Umpqua National Forest spokesperson, Brittnay Burnett, said not only will they treat over 2,000 acres of at-risk terrain. “Additionally,” she said, “272 acres of linear fuel break boundaries will be established along what we call pods, which are landscape features, like roads or ridgetops, that have been identified as ideal locations to stop the spread of wildfire.’
The funded project is in partnership with Cow Creek Band of Umpqua tribe of Indians and the Department of Forestry. Burnett said the Elk Tribal and Community Healthy Forest Restoration project is expected to improve water quality and storage, wildlife and fisheries habitats, and opportunities to remove commercially viable timber products.
Above all, she said, the millions in funding “will reduce the severity and intensity of wildfire across this terrain and collectively shape this landscape of the forest now and in the future.”
The $4.89 million funding to Umpqua National Forest is part of a $9.76 million investment in four Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program projects in Oregon and Washington.
Tribal Co-Stewardship and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Project (Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area) received $345,000 to conduct cultural resource surveys, develop traditional ecological knowledge recommendations for management, and promote Tribal youth engagement.
Grayback Creek Watershed Ecological Restoration and Wildfire Risk Reduction Project (Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest) was awarded $4.4 million to support strategic planning and forest restoration efforts, community engagement and collaboration, and workforce development.
Sufferin Springs NEPA Heritage Surveys (Wallowa-Whitman National Forest) received $132,722 to support critical heritage surveys that will enable completion of the Sufferin Springs Project environmental analysis in the La Grande Ranger District
