Ten Forest Restoration Projects Selected by USFS
The US Forest Service has selected ten landscape-scale forest restoration proposals nationally to begin implementation of Title IV - Forest Landscape Restoration of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 [here, here, here, here] (among many other posts - for the full panoply see here).
Out of the 150 national forests in the system, 31 submitted CFLRP project proposals [here]. Regional Foresters screened proposals first, so the 31 possibly represent a reduced subset of the total number proposed at the forest level.
The ten projects selected are:
* Southwestern Crown of the Continent, MT
* Uncompahgre Plateau, CO
* Colorado Front Range, CO
* 4 Forest Restoration, AZ
* Southwest Jemez Mountains, NM
* Dinkey Landscape, CA
* Tapash, WA
* Deschutes Skyline, OR
* Northeastern Florida, FL
If Congress continues to fund the CFLRP, ten more landscape-scale forest restoration proposals will be selected next year and in future years.
These first proposals are of varying quality; it is possible that future projects (and proposals) will be better, having been informed by this first go-around.
On the other hand, the language in some of the proposals is completely obnoxious. Why our government has to talk in Stalinese is beyond me. The uber Potemkin Village rhetoric is depressing.
Also, there is no discussion in any of the proposals regarding landscape history, particularly cultural landscape aspects. Even the Yakama Nation is apparently unaware that they have a heritage on the land — they certainly don’t discuss that aspect in their proposal. It is not clear what the USFS thinks it is that is to be restored.
Also, there is no discussion of the overall USFS mission and how the proposals might or might not dovetail with that.
These are fumbling, stumbling first steps. I suppose it is the best that can be expected from the competency-challenged folks we have hired.
As usual we welcome your comments. You may wish to inspect the proposals first.
