Amador County – The U.S. Forest Service last week announced funding for 10 new projects under its Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration program, which it said is an effort to help create jobs and get more lumber from national woodlands, while managing forests.

John Heil of U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region said restoration strategy and actions “are designed to expand the number of forest acres treated by 20 percent over the next three years and increase the pace of active forest management, including fuels reduction, reforestation, stream restoration, road decommissioning, replacing and improving culverts, forest thinning and harvesting, prescribed fire and a range of other techniques.”

As a result, the Forest Service will be able to accomplish critical restoration objectives, Heil said, including for water, wildlife, forest health and resilience, and community safety. He said “this effort will support jobs and stimulate a more vibrant forest industry that will provide the workers and the know-how to undertake other restoration projects, with a goal of increasing the amount of forest products sold in 2014 to 3 billion board feet, up from 2.4 billion board feet in 2011.”

Restoration efforts “will further stimulate local economies by retaining and increasing other forest related jobs,” Heil said, “such as the 1,550 jobs expected to be maintained or generated through implementation of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration projects, and by supporting recreation activities and attracting more tourists to rural areas.”

Recreation activities on National Forest System land “contribute $14.5 billion annually to the U.S. economy and support hundreds of thousands of jobs in local communities.”

U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said “accelerated restoration efforts demonstrate a shared vision where environmentalists, forest industry and local communities are working together to build healthier forests and contribute to local economies. The increased restoration work will benefit the environment and people, with more resilient ecosystems, improved watersheds and wildlife habitat, hazardous fuel reduction, and outputs of forest products.”

Tidwell said “we hope accelerated restoration activities will bring all of our partners together, working as allies for forest conservation.”

Heil said the mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.