On a perfect fall day this October, nearly a dozen state legislators joined The Nature Conservancy for a walk in the woods to learn more about our innovative forest health work on Cle Elum Ridge.
TNC has been working to restore the health of forests throughout the state, ensuring communities are resilient and can recover quickly from wildfires. Cle Elum Ridge in the Central Cascades serves as a “living laboratory” to explore cutting-edge forest health practices such as selective tree thinning, tree mastication, and prescribed fires. These management practices are helping to improve forest health, reduce wildfire risk to the neighboring communities of Cle Elum, Roslyn, and Ronald, and support water security in the most climate-vulnerable watershed basin in the state. Bringing state leaders together in this space was a chance to explore how these practices can serve as a model for other wildfire-prone areas across Washington.
Darcy Batura, Director of Forest Partnerships, highlights forest treatments from a viewpoint atop the Cle Elum Ridge.
Since time immemorial Indigenous peoples have stewarded these lands, often setting beneficial forest fires to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Frequent and naturally occurring fires have also helped to shape the fire-adapted ecosystems of dry forests. However, a century of fire suppression policies has created a “tree problem” – overcrowded forests with a lot of fuel made even more threatening by climate change-driven temperature rise and drought.
The Jolly Mountain Fire in 2017 was a wake-up call for the communities of Cle Elum and Roslyn, emphasizing the need for a new path forward.
State House & Senate legislators take a stroll through trails that make up the Towns to Teanaway multi-use trail system.
Under TNC’s active management, the forest we visited is now in a much healthier place than before the 2017 wildfire. TNC is using mastication to remove excess fuels on the forest floors. These are large machines that mulch the brush and small trees. We also conduct commercial and pre-commercial thinning to help this forest be less susceptible to destructive wildfires.
Our mile-long walk brought policymakers past slash piles from previous mastication and thinning as well as signs of recent prescribed burns. TNC’s Burn Boss Sami Schinnell emphasized the timeliness of this work: “We respond to wildfires as an emergency. We also need to be responding to this issue of putting fire back on the landscape as an emergency.” Legislators saw untreated areas that had heavy fuel loads and then got to see areas where this combination of approaches had restored the forest to a more resilient state.
The work underway on Cle Elum Ridge is made possible with funding from House Bill 1168, which passed in 2021 to fund three areas: wildfire prevention, forest health and restoration, and community wildfire resilience. It was a full-circle moment to be able to thank Rep. Larry Springer for sponsoring the bill in person, while seeing the impact of these funds in action. The Department of Natural Resources’ 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan identified the need to treat 1.25 million acres across federal, state and private lands. Our Cle Elum Ridge work is an example of the progress being made towards this goal with the help of House Bill 1168, but we need to keep up the momentum with robust ongoing funding for all three areas of fire and forest health activities.
Sami Schinnell, Cooperative Fire Director, compares areas that have recently been thinned with prescribed fire.
As Washington sets a new course reintroducing fire to the landscape and conducting intentional thinning, it is a challenge to secure the workforce for this forest health work. Schinnell shared how climate change is shifting the timing of prescribed fires. This summer we were able to undergo a burn in July, but this is typically a window when many fire professionals are tied up in wildfire suppression. Mastication and thinning also require specialized contractors and machinery that are lacking across the state. Building a dedicated workforce to do the necessary work of managing our dry forests is an upcoming challenge for state policymakers to contend with.
Legislators and staff from the Washington State House & Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committees, joined by TNC staff for a great day of learning about forest health!
We are grateful to our state legislators for joining us in this special place, and for committee leaders Senators Kevin Van de Wege, Senator Ron Muzzall, Representative Mike Chapman, and Representative Tom Dent for planning the visit as part of an official, multi-stop tour for the House and Senate Agriculture and Natural Resource Committees. We are eager to see how the lessons of Cle Elum Ridge can be applied at scale to support the resilience of forests and communities across our state.
