Twisp Restoration Project seeks to improve landscape health and fire resilience

WINTHROP -  The Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest is proposing a variety of treatments across the approximately 77,000 acre Twisp Restoration Project project area. A primary focus of this project is thinning overstocked areas to improve stand health and prescribed fire treatments to restore good fire to the landscape and reduce the risk of catastrophic fires impacting habitat and the local communities.

"Something I think about often as the District Ranger for the Methow Valley is the history of large fires in the area and how significantly the community has been impacted by those fires," said Ranger Chris Furr. "More than 50% of this project area has not experienced fire within the past 80 years. There are over 40 miles of boundary with private lands in the project area. The 2018 Crescent Fire is a recent reminder that this forest is fire-adapted and will eventually experience fire. If we treat these areas now, we reduce potential for future high severity, long duration fires that impact not just forest habitat, but also smoke-sensitive residents and the local economy."

Proposed restoration includes thinning, prescribed fire, adding large wood to streams to improve fish habitat, road decommissioning, decommissioning of the Roads End Campground, and more. The proposed activities will help restore the landscape to conditions more consistent with naturally occurring disturbance regimes. Improved resistance and resilience to forest disturbance, such as wildfires or insect and disease outbreaks, over the long-term will protect and provide more productive wildlife habitat while also achieving a sustainable restoration economy.  

We invite you to comment on the Twisp Restoration Project environmental assessment and share your knowledge of the area with the planning team. Comments are requested by November 21, 2020. In lieu of an in-person public meeting or field trip, an online public meeting is planned for November 5, 2020 at 6:30 pm. A virtual tour app was developed for this project and will be available on October 23, 2020 for self-guided tours of the project area.

For information on how to access the virtual meeting and field tour, as well as to submit comments on the project, please visit the project web page:https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=56554. For more information the project, please contact project lead Eireann Pederson at Eireann.Pederson@usda.gov.