Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition's new grants enabling an "All-hands, All lands" approach to restore fores

The Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition (CWSC) in Leavenworth, Wash., has been awarded $100,000 in new funding through the Washington State Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) All Lands Forest Restoration Grant Program and $25,000 through DNR’s Building Forest Partnerships Grant Program. This has led to the CWSC working closely with DNR staff to continue the Coalition’s decade-long endeavor to ‘create a culture, community, and landscape adapted to wildfire’ in the Leavenworth area.

The CWSC is partnering with DNR staff, the U.S. Forest Service’s Wenatchee River Ranger District, Cascadia Conservation District, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, local residents, and others, aiding and facilitating the development of an “all-hands, all-lands” vegetative fuels reduction treatment plan and program. The on-the-ground intention behind this work is to coordinate forestry treatments and compliance monitoring in the “all-lands all-hands” manner, consistent with the DNR’s 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Services’ National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, benefitting private landowners in the Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) area.

 

What is the ‘all-lands, all-hands’ strategy?
The “all lands, all hands” strategy for forest health and reducing wildfire risk recognizes that many people, governments, tribes, and companies own forest land across the landscape. To be effective in protecting our communities we must work together to make the forest more resilient to wildfires.

Fire doesn’t respect property boundaries, so Washington State must take a cross-boundary approach in solving this problem.

Long-term forest restoration is critical to the health and safety of the Leavenworth area. Historically, this expanse of forest – approximately 55,000 acres - was composed of tall, widely-spaced Ponderosa Pine. Fire was frequent (every 5 to 15 years) but low in intensity and was a vital and regular component of the ecosystem. The dry, open Ponderosa Pine forests of the 1900s have given way to densely stocked stands of Douglas fir overladen with fuels. Approximately 98 percent of the Chumstick Coalition’s service area has this higher than normal fuel load. Fire is now low-frequency - virtually excluded - and extremely high-severity, which means when we do have a fire, the chances for it to be catastrophic to residents, emergency management, and infrastructure are high. The opportunity exists now to make real change before the next wildfire, and the Coalition is working to make the most of it.

The benefits from this collaborative work at the CWSC don’t stop there, however. Through close work with our partners, the Chumstick Coalition is doing what it does best: providing outreach, education, and assistance for Leavenworth’s residents to reduce vegetative fuels around their homes, on their lands, and on nearby public lands in our ongoing mission to build a community better adapted to living with wildfire.

Call to action:
Those living in the Leavenworth area and can learn more about CWSC’s programs by visiting its Facebook page and our website at (www.ChumstickCoalition.org), or by emailing Fuels@ChumstickCoalition.org.