Yesterday, the Bend Bulletin printed a story about the Glaze Forest Restoration Project near Black Butte Ranch on the Deschutes National Forest. Our eastern Oregon staffer, Tim Lillebo, has spent more than a few hours working on this project. In fact, he's been called "the instigator" of this project more than once. This project, a model for how we'd like to see many eastern Oregon forests managed,  brought together many diverse interests to find common ground on what's best for the forest, and it is finally being implemented.

Also yesterday, a report in the Corvallis Gazette-Times about Senator Wyden's town hall meeting mentioned this eastern Oregon model. The Senator talked about the agreement reached between conservationists and timber industry interests for eastern Oregon forest restoration, and the need to export it to western Oregon.

Of course we're proud of that agreement, and Senator Wyden's proposed legislation. But the Glaze Meadow Project and the eastern Oregon legislation are only the newest in a long history of Oregon Wild's work on "model projects".

This was pointed out at the Alsea Stewardship Group meeting I attended last night in the heart of the Coast Range and the Siuslaw National Forest.  Someone had seen the Gazette-Times story and brought up the fact that it's the home-grown Siuslaw's model that should be "exported" - where finding common-ground and restoring forests and watersheds has been the norm for more than 10 years. 

Excellent point! While Tim Lillebo has been working hard with partners on Oregon's dryer side to move the National Forest towards a restoration model that's good for the forests, wildlife, streams, and the economy, a succession of staff has been doing the same work on the wetter side. And it's been working! In the Siuslaw National Forest, with the cooperation of the Siuslaw and Alsea Stewardship Groups, thousands of acres of dense young plantations have been thinned to help bring back old-growth forests. And with the use of stewardship contracting, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been reinvested in the Forest and surrounding lands to benefit wildlife habitat and the local economy. And in the Clackamas watershed in the Mount Hood National Forest, collaboration has led to the restoration of hundreds of miles of streams that were damaged by extensive road building.

As we move forward on legislation to protect and restore eastern Oregon's old-growth forests and healthy watersheds, we can't forget about the well-established models here on the west-side. We'll need them when it's time to walk down the runway towards western Oregon old-growth protection and restoration legislation!