WWC Participates in Colville Forest Planning Collaborative Effort
WWC was one of about 50 local stakeholders who participated in a collaborative process with the Colville National Forest to give input to the current forest plan revision. Participants included local timber interests, motorized recreationists, mountain bikers, the Air Force, 49 Degrees Ski Resort, local county commissioners and other elected officials and conservation groups. The effort, the first of its kind within the Forest Service required a significant time commitment, including more than 10 all-day meetings over more than a year.
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Improving Management on Washington's National Forests
One of the most important organizing opportunities around wilderness and roadless lands comes when national forests begin their forest plan revisions. The planning efforts for the Colville, Wenatchee and Okanogan National Forests in eastern Washington are ongoing right now and WWC is working to actively engage our members and the public in this important process.
Under the 1976 National Forest Management Act, forests are required to revise forest wide plans every 15 years. The plans are required to include public participation and environmental review to deal with a host of critical management issues including wilderness recommendations, roadless area inventory, off road vehicle travel and land designations impacting wildlife habitat.
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Adding to the Forest Service Inventory of Roadless Areas
WWC worked hard with its coalition partners to press the Forest Service to improve their roadless area inventory as part of the ongoing forest plan revision in eastern Washington to include unroaded eligible lands. As a result of those efforts the Forest Service recently announced a revised inventory of roadless lands in the Wenatchee, Okanagon and Colville National Forest in eastern Washington.
The new inventory restores most of the more than 150,000 acres of previously inventoried roadless areas that had been proposed for deletion under the initial inventory and adds approximately140,000 acres of never before inventoried areas. These new additions include a number of special area prized by wildlife and quiet recreationists such as Cabin Creek and Owl Mountain in the Colville’s Kettle Crest and Lookout Mountain in the Okanagon.
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