FORKS — Officials with the Olympic Peninsula Forest Collaborative will tell of past accomplishments and seek input on future plans during public meetings in Forks, Aberdeen and Port Angeles.
The first will be at the Olympic Natural Resources Center, 1455 S. Forks Ave., on Tuesday.
On April 15, a public meeting is set at the Rotary Log Pavilion, 1401 Sargent Blvd., Aberdeen.
On May 28, a meting is scheduled at Lecture Hall J47 on the Peninsula College campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., in Port Angeles.
Each meeting will run from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Olympic Peninsula Forest Collaborative was launched in 2015 when Congressman Derek Kilmer joined regional leaders from the U. S. Forest Service, local governments, the local timber industry, and environmental advocacy groups to focus on increasing habitat restoration, thinning and aquatic restoration projects on the Olympic National Forest consistent with the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan to increase economic opportunities on the Olympic Peninsula.
“Recent successes achieved by the Olympic Forest Collaborative show that we don’t have to choose between protecting our environment and creating a more vibrant economy,” said Kilmer, who represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
Over the past three years, the collaborative has assisted assisting the U. S. Forest Service with preparing commercial thinning timber sales to help the Olympic National Forest meet and recently exceed timber targets and fund habitat and aquatic restoration objectives, according to a press release from the collaborative.
It also developed two pilot Habitat Restoration Thinning Stewardship projects — H to Z and Big Stewardship — which were sold by the Olympic National Forest.
The sales funded the replacement of a large failing culvert on Vance Creek in the Skokomish watershed and is one example of the type of aquatic restoration projects paid for by stewardship receipts.
Over the past year, the Olympic Collaborative has worked closely with the University of Washington’s Olympic Natural Resources Center (ONRC) in Forks to improve public outreach.
Through state funding championed by Reps. Mike Chapman, D- Port Angeles, and Steve Tharinger, D-Port Townsend, the ONRC is facilitating the public meetings and helping to improve the collaborative’s website at https://olympicforest collaborative.org/.
The collaborative is working on two new stewardship projects for 2019.
Queets Corner will treat about 50 acres within the Queets River watershed in Jefferson County.
The Humptulips project will thin about 70 acres of second-growth stands within the Humptulips River watershed in Grays Harbor County.
The public meetings set on the Olympic Peninsula offer information about plans and ask for ideas and feedback from attendees on new projects and ways to increase their representation and involvement, the press release said.
