FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ADVISORY - Pioneering National Forest Collaboration Celebrates 10 Years of Success

Speakers, media tour, and more to celebrate a decade of restoration.

What: Siuslaw Stewardship Group 10th Anniversary Celebration

This anniversary celebration will offer a festive atmosphere, a catered picnic dinner, presentations highlighting the beginnings of this diverse partnership and its many accomplishments, and the presentation of the Two Chiefs Award to Siuslaw National Forest partners and staff.

Speaking at the event will be Liz Vollmer-Buhl with the Siuslaw Watershed Council;  Johnny Sundstrom, founding member of the Siuslaw Stewardship Group;  Dan Segotta with the Siuslaw National Forest; Kent Connaughton, Regional Forester for Region 6 of the USFS; and Ron Alvarado, State Conservationist with the NRCS.

When: Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Media tour of restoration sites: 1:30 pm
Celebration event: 3:00-7:00 pm, program starts at 4:00 pm

Where:
Media tour meets at Siuslaw Watershed Council office (10961 Hwy. 36) in Mapleton, OR
Celebration event is at 88804 Nelson Mountain Road, near Walton, OR

Why:
For ten years, diverse stakeholders – from watershed councils and environmental groups, to timber companies and local landowners – have been working collaboratively with the Siuslaw National Forest to plan and implement forest and watershed restoration projects that improve fish and wildlife habitat and provide sustainable jobs. The result has been a timber sale program that has seen zero appeals in 10 years all while ranking among the highest producers of wood products volume in the Pacific Northwest. The Stewardship Group has used a set of federal “stewardship” authorities to reinvest receipts from these restoration timber sales into dozens of watershed restoration projects on both public and private land.

The Two Chiefs Award, a national honor presented jointly by U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Chief Tom Tidwell and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Dave White, is for exemplary collaborative work to support conservation.

Contact:
Chandra LeGue
503.344.0675 (office)
541.915.2363 (cell)
cl@oregonwild.org

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