U.S. Forest service program benefits forests in western Montana
An annual report was released on Dec. 19 on the performance of a U.S. Forest Service program, Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration, revealing returns for forests, jobs, water, and wildlife. The three-year old program invested $40 million in forest restoration at 23 forested landscapes across the country in 2012.
As identified in the report, the 23 landscapes cumulatively provided the following 2012 results:
• Created and maintained 4,574 full- and part-time jobs
• Generated nearly $320 million in labor income
• Reduced the risk of mega-fires on 612,000 acres
• Enhanced clean water supplies by remediating 6,000 miles of eroding roads
• Sold 95.1 million cubic feet of timber
• Improved 537,000 acres of wildlife habitat
• Restored nearly 400 miles of fish habitat.
In addition to these on the ground results, CFLR also highlighted the opportunity to leverage matching investments in forest restoration. CFLR leveraged an additional $45.4 million dollars toward collaborative actions in 2012.
American forests cover one-third of the United States, store and filter half the nation’s water supply, provide jobs to more than a million wood products workers, absorb nearly 20 percent of U.S. carbon emissions, offer 650 million acres of recreational lands that generate over $13 billion a year in economic activity and provide habitat for thousands of species.
CFLR is particularly important because 2012 was the nation’s third-largest wildfire year. A century of suppressing natural wildfires has resulted in unhealthy forests choked with small trees and brush that can lead to destructive fires.
Over the last 50 years the United States has had only six years with more than 8 million acres burned — all have occurred in the last eight years, including 2012.
The conditions of U.S. forests are further enflamed by pest and diseases, as well as climate change.
The Nature Conservancy estimates 120 million acres of America’s forests — an area bigger than the state of California — are in immediate need of restoration due to these threats.
The 23 sites to receive investment in 2012 were:
• Southwestern Crown of the Continent, Montana, $4 million
• Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative, Idaho, $324,000
• Weiser-Little Salmon Headwaters Project, Idaho, $2.45 million
• Selway-Middle Fork Clearwater, Idaho, $4 million
• Ozark Highlands Ecosystem Restoration, Arkansas, $959,000
• Shortleaf-Bluestem Community Project, Arkansas and Oklahoma, $342,000
• Four Forest Restoration Initiative, Arizona, $4 million
• Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group Cornerstone Project, California, $730,000
• Burney-Hat Creek Basins Project, California, $605,000
• Dinkey Landscape Restoration Project, California, $1,788,257
• Front Range Landscape Restoration Initiative, Colorado, $4 million
• Uncompahgre Plateau, Colorado, $1,018,200
• Accelerating Longleaf Pine Restoration, Florida, $1,497,970
• Longleaf Pine Ecosystem Restoration and Hazardous Fuels Reduction, Mississippi, $2.71 million
• Pine-Oak Woodlands Restoration Project, Missouri, $617,000
• Southwest Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, $3.865 million
• Zuni Mountain Project, New Mexico, $400,000
• Grandfather Restoration Project, North Carolina, $605,000
• Deschutes Collaborative Forest, Oregon, $1,087,700
• Lakeview Stewardship Project, Oregon, $3.5 million
• Southern Blues Restoration Coalition, Oregon, $2.5 million
• Northeast Washington Forest Vision 2020, Washington, $968,000
• Tapash Sustainable Forest Collaborative, Washington, $2,445,525
The CFLR annual report was produced by the CFLR Coalition, which is comprised of 145 member organizations that include private businesses, communities, counties, tribes, water suppliers, associations and non-governmental organizations.
Copies of the 2012 CFLRP Annual Report can be requested from Jon Schwedler of the CFLR Coalition at jschwedler@tnc.org.
Information on CFLRP can be found at the U.S. Forest Service’s website, http://www.fs.fed.us/restor tion/CFLR/.