Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
tal Impact Statements. Importantly, the Nez Perce tribe and Wallowa County gov-
ernment acted as “cooperating agencies” with the WWNF in their development of
NEPA analysis and alternatives. All analysis was supported by the common watershed
analysis, biological evaluations/opinions, and cumulative effects analysis for optimum
efficiency. This approach helped reduce time spent in the NEPA process and gener-
ated local benefits, including capacity building and employment. Based on market as-
sessments, including local contractor capacity, the USFS worked with the NRAC to
recombine NEPA decisions into optimum bundles of work and issue multiyear, mul-
titask contracts using pilot stewardship contracting authorities. Where possible, re-
ceipts accrued in implementation were retained as baseline financing for monitoring
and subsequent watershed planning. Between 2005 and 2009, more than $1 million
was invested in watershed restoration projects that have opened 38 miles of riparian
habitat for all life stages of native steelhead, reduced the risk of stream sedimentation
with 11.6 miles of road work, rehabilitated twenty-five upland water sites for off-stream
livestock use, and conducted 14,312 acres of forest management, including commer-
cial thinning (6 million board feet removed and 6.5 million board feet sold in July
2009), precommercial thinning, biomass removal, and prescribed burning. From the
initial collaborative investment of $370,000 (cash and in kind) to complete the water-
shed assessment, the local economic benefit from all restoration projects to date (in-
cluding the value of saw logs removed and milled) exceeds $5 million.
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Other benefits
realized include the following:
• Restoration efforts are more coordinated and less random, resulting in greater
impact
• Improved partnerships have benefited other collaborative processes such as
Wallowa County's Community Wildfire Protection Plan
• The local USFS office is more competitive for regional and national USFS res-
toration funds
• A second watershed assessment, in the Lower Joseph Creek watershed, was ini-
tiated in 2007
Keys to Local Watershed Collaboration and Lessons Learned
The Upper Joseph Creek Watershed Assessment was a step forward in the evolution
and progression of collaboration for natural resource restoration and stewardship in
Wallowa County. Collaboration moved from a focus on planning (e.g., Salmon Habi-
tat Recovery Plan) to a focus on landscape assessment, implementation, and ongoing
monitoring. It represented a conscientious decision by Wallowa County and members
of the NRAC to pursue collaborative processes to advance the pace and scale of resto-
ration. The decision was motivated by broad recognition that recent trends in man-
agement activity and investment were insufficient to address the scale of restoration
needs, evident in, for example, the miles of fish passage barriers within riparian sys-
tems and the acreage of forest at risk from wildfire. The parties also recognized that
significant local social and economic benefit could be generated by increased invest-
ment in restoration.
