December 10 2020

Our Science and Stewardship Manager, Amanda Keasberry, and our partner Jesse Burgher, a grad student at  Washington State University-Vancouver, recently set out on a beautiful sunny November day to check in on a pair of beavers released into the forest earlier this fall. Last year, some of our supporters won the privilege of naming some of the beavers released in 2020. This pair were dubbed Cornelia and Gifford.

 

 

Although the male has been located several times before, the team wasn’t able to locate him on this trip, but neither are worried. “It’s typical for one beaver to go off exploring while the other waits at home,” explained Keasberry. She added that the deep snow limited their access to the creek so the area they were able to search in was restricted. 

Speakers of the Algonkian language, including some of the first tribes encountered by British colonists, call the full moon in November the beaver moon. It is the time when beavers prepare for the winter by storing food and setting up their dens and lodges. By now, Cornelia and Gifford are probably ready for the winter months. Jesse will continue checking in on the beavers every month. Stay tuned for future updates.

New study highlights the importance of beaver reintroduction work in the southern Washington Cascades

A newly published study from our Partners at Washington State University partners confirms the importance of beavers for wildlife and climate resilience. reintroduction work. This research shows that beaver-affected habitats in the southern Washington Cascades increase the presence and diversity of slow-developing amphibian species, such as the vulnerable Oregon spotted frog.

CFC’s beaver reintroduction work is an effective and important component of ecosystem-based restoration work, management, and climate adaptation efforts. As northern temperate wetland ecosystems like those found within the Gifford Pinchot NF, face increased summer drying in the coming years, beaver-affected habitats may become increasingly important climate refugia critical to the survival of a number of species.

Read the article here.

October 26th 2020  |  Amanda Keasberry

Cascade Forest Conservancy is working to restore beavers to areas of the forests where they are absent. European settlement and the fur trade that fueled it reduced beaver populations to as few as 100,000 animals by the turn of the 20th century. In the last 100 years, their numbers have rebounded significantly, but are still only a fraction of historic levels. Many plants and animals in North America evolved in a world shaped and constructed by beavers. These rodents, and the habitats they create, are still essential to healthy watersheds and forests.

Reintroducing beavers is one of our best tools for protecting and restoring ecosystems across southwest Washington. This year, we’ll be moving 3-4 families of beavers from areas where their penchant for building is impacting human infrastructure to places in the wild where they are most needed.

Early last week, we got the call that our wildlife trappers caught our first beaver of the season! We met the trapper at our beaver housing facility and learned that we had a 2-year-old, 29 pound male. We were informed that he definitely had a mate or sibling that we would need to get before we released them into their new home in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. 

Trapping beavers takes experience and knowledge, which is why we are working with licensed trappers. The trappers position the trap so it is partially in the water and place vegetation and castor lure to attract the beavers. Once one beaver is trapped, the other beavers are quick to become skeptical of the traps near their home. It is not uncommon for them to retreat for a couple of days after traps are set. The photo below shows the 2-year-old male beaver in the box trap he was caught in.

Two days later, the trappers had news that they caught the 2-year-old, 24 pound female beaver that was living with the male beaver. The female was quick to hide when we put her in the facility and the male immediately went over to her. She stayed tucked away and the male went and sat next to her. It was a clear sign that they remembered one another and that we should leave them be! The next afternoon we found the snuggled together in their lodge. As we began to clean the housing facility, they jumped into one of their pools while we were cleaning it out. It was safe to say that they seemed happy to be reunited with one another! 

The trappers were pretty confident that these two beavers were the only ones living together, but they kept the traps out for a few more days before we made the call on releasing them to their new home. We are only allowed to house the beavers for two weeks so we don’t leave too much of an imprint on them from human interactions. We had the male for 5 days and the female for three, so we thought it was worth it to wait and see if they had anyone else in their family. So, the beavers hung out for a few more days doing beaver activities like swimming, grooming, sleeping, and eating. 

After a week in the facility, the beavers could now get back to being wild beavers. In their previous home, they were negatively impacting infrastructure that was near their creek. Now, in the national forest, they can construct their dams and lodges where there is minimal risk of damaging any infrastructure. Ideally, the beavers will stay where they were released but no matter where they go, they will provide the ecosystem with numerous benefits like creating in-stream habitat for a variety of species, stabilizing seasonal flows, capturing fine sediment, and recruiting riparian vegetation.

In addition to the wildlife camera, this pair of beavers were also outfitted with radio transmitters for a study being conducted by WSU-Vancouver and WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. We will be able to get daily locations about where these beavers are moving within the system. A graduate student with WSU-Vancouver is currently out tracking the movement of our newly released beaver pair. Over the first few days the beavers have up and downstream from the release location but have stayed within a half a mile of the release. The radio transmitter tracking will occur for two weeks and then two weeks after that CFC will go out to look for dams, lodges, and other signs that the beavers have decided to make this spot their new home! 

Last week, more acreage in Washington burned during a single day than had during the last 12 years combined. Record-breaking fires are burning across the West. Our thoughts are with the thousands of people who have been forced to make the painful decision to flee their homes, not knowing if they will ever see them again. Entire communities have been destroyed, and people have even lost their lives. 

You can help people affected by fires by donating to the Red Cross Western Wildfire Relief fund here.

FIRES ARE A NORMAL PART OF FOREST ECOLOGY IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, BUT THESE FIRES ARE DIFFERENT. WHY ARE THESE FIRES SO DANGEROUS, AND WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

Wildfires shaped the evolution of the plants and animals in our region and remain important to our region. Healthy Pacific Northwest forests are complex patchworks of stands in various stages of growth and regrowth. They are young and old, disturbed, undisturbed, and ever-changing. One reason they look this way is that wildfires do not burn through an area uniformly. Some forest stands in fire-affected areas will ignite while others escape untouched. The resulting mosaic of varied habitats supports diverse communities of plants and animals including some species that thrive in these unique post-fire conditions.

But studies are showing that today’s fires are more intense, and some are burning the same areas in quick succession, compared to historic patterns. These “short-interval”, high-intensity fires are negatively affecting increasingly rare old-growth stands, which are evolved to be resilient to fire, but can still be damaged by high intensity and repeated burns. These fires are also making it harder for affected areas to bounce back by depleting seed banks, and eroding forest soils. CFC staff have seen firsthand what scientists are describing. Some of the post-fire areas we’ve visited that should have been sites of vigorous regrowth were recovering slowly and with low biodiversity compared to what we typically expect to see.

A major contributing factor to the current situation with wildfires is ongoing climate change. Rising temperatures and changing weather patterns have left our forests particularly dry and warm. “Forest fuels” are as dry as they’ve ever been, and are releasing more energy when ignited, meaning fires are hotter, more destructive, and more unpredictable. In Oregon and Washington, big fires usually occur less frequently on the west side of the mountains and more commonly in more arid climates east of the Cascades. This year’s drought conditions have enabled fires to burn in areas close to major population centers west of the Cascades—areas that are too damp to sustain major burns most other years. Although climate change is the primary reason fires in the west are getting worse, it is not the only factor.

Not only are fuels drier and more volatile, they are also more abundant across our forests. For generations, indigenous people used controlled fires to sustainably manage the forests in the Pacific Northwest. But settlers and colonizers dangerously mismanaged the forest to devastating effect. Federal and State government agencies adopted policies of universal fire suppression and other unsustainable forestry practices. Across America, many fire-resilient, biodiverse old-growth forests have been clear-cut and replaced with crowded, overgrown, homogeneous, single-species stands of trees designed to grow fast and be harvested for maximum profits. Over the last hundred years, responsibly managed, dynamic, and healthy forest ecosystems have been systematically replaced by what is essentially a tinderbox.

 

What can be done to prevent severe fires in the future?

One of the most commonly proposed solutions to the problem is thinning. But thinning these forests alone doesn’t help and in many cases, it exacerbates the problem. Thinning that focuses on removing large trees—the most fire-resistant material—will do more harm than good from a fire resilience perspective. Responsible thinning in conjunction with prescribed burns, like the current work happening to protect old-growth ponderosa pine and douglas fir stands south of Mt. Adams, can do a lot to protect mixed conifer forests from wildfire. While these and similar methods can help protect specific stands in certain types of mixed conifer forests, this doesn’t apply universally to all forests in the western US and there is no realistic way to continually protect 350 million acres of overgrown forests from severe fires. 

The problem of intensifying wildfires is a complicated one, and no single solution will work in every forest. The effects of climate change will likewise not be the same for every forest, but will continue to cause universally destabilizing effects. Our best chance to prevent the situation from becoming worse is to do all we can now to stop or slow climate change. Fire-proofing homes and properties in forested areas is another important step for reducing the life-changing impacts of these types of fires. 

We expect unusually large and severe fires in our region to continue happening, so Cascade Forest Conservancy is working to help make our forest more resilient to fires now to mitigate some of the damage when it does happen. We address the issue using a wide variety of tools, from scrutinizing proposed timber sales to ensure they account for insights from current ecology and climate science, to working on-the-ground to restore habitats to more natural conditions, therefore reducing the risk of catastrophic burns. For example, post-fire seeding can help kickstart regrowth and biodiversity in areas impacted by successive fires, and dams built by beavers we reintroduce help store water higher up in watersheds, which slows some of the drying resulting from climate change and helps create fire breaks.

TAKE ACTION

Do your part to help elect local, state, and federal officials who believe in climate science and will fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conserve our forests.

Take steps to reduce your carbon footprint.  

August 30, 2020

We have some important updates about our work to protect Goat Mountain and the Green River Valley from hard rock mining. A September 18 hearing date has been set in our case against the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Oral argument will be held remotely rather than in a courtroom. It is currently unknown who will be able to watch the arguments, but we will update you as we learn more.

Why did we sue?

In the final weeks of 2018, the Forest Service and the BLM granted a Canadian company, Ascot Resources, permits to drill 63 exploratory boreholes 2 to 3 inches in diameter on and around Goat Mountain, despite the comments and objections of Cascade Forest Conservancy and opposition from tens of thousands of concerned individuals and other organizations. In response to the decision, we filed a lawsuit because we believe the permits issued are illegal. A portion of the area in question was purchased with funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which is specifically allocated for purchasing land for the purposes of recreation and conservation. Furthermore, the exploratory drilling permits were granted without the necessary analysis required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) leading to a Finding of No Significant Impact–or a determination (which we believe to be false) that the project will not have any significant impact, negative or positive, on the environment. 

Why is an exploratory drilling permit such a big concern?

Drilling exploratory boreholes will cause significant negative impacts on the area and the people who enjoy it. The Ascot proposal involves reactivating old roads in pristine forest to transport trucks and heavy equipment to drill sites. Harmful chemicals would be used at the drill sites, some of which are located within 100 feet of waterways, and the constant noise of equipment would disturb wildlife and ruin some of the best fishing, hunting, hiking, horseback riding, and outdoor recreation opportunities in Washington State.

Our biggest concern, however, is that if significant mineral deposits are found, stopping an open-pit hard rock mine may become very difficult. Our best chance of protecting this place and the surrounding areas is to stop the mining process now, not later.

What is at stake?

Goat Mountain and the Green River Valley are situated just beyond the borders of the protected Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument. In fact, as you can see in the map below, the boundary lines of the monument were drawn specifically to exclude the area from protection because of the possible value of the mineral deposits that may lie there. The monument was formed in 1982. During the years of the Regan administration, excluding these areas from protection was a necessary compromise to achieve protections for the rest of the mountain, but one that left the region vulnerable to mining threats.

The slopes of Goat Mountain are home to some of the only old-growth forest stands in the area to survive both the intensive logging of the preceding decades and the 1980 eruption. The Green River flowing directly below is a recognized gene bank for wild steelhead, and an eligible Wild and Scenic River. A mine would completely decimate this landscape. We are also concerned by the toxic chemicals that are used in hard rock mining and stored in tailing ponds. These toxic ponds would pollute waterways and poison drinking water far beyond the immediate area if (or more accurately when) the pond leaks and breaches into the Green River, which flows into the Toutle, then into the Cowlitz. There is no way to mine safely on the slopes of an active volcano and in a seismically volatile landscape. If a mine is excavated the impacts of the damage will be felt for hundreds of years.

What are our next steps?

Even if we win in court, this fight will not be over. Similar permits have been approved and ruled illegal in the past. The only way we can protect this area from mining, in the long run, is to secure permanent protections for the Green River Valley. 

Cascade Forest Conservancy will make sure to keep you up to date on this issue. You can help us by making a donation to support our work to protect this landscape here.

In the past few years, Cascade Forest Conservancy has become increasingly concerned about the reemergence of regeneration harvest on National Forests and public lands. Regeneration harvest is a harmful harvesting practice, similar to a clearcut, where only 10-20% of the tree stand is left behind. While conservationists see regeneration harvests as harmful to forests, it is lucrative for landowners, timber companies, and land management agencies. Regeneration harvest is not a new issue. However, the inclusion of this method to create early seral habitat is something we are experiencing with increasing frequency and scale on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

 

WHAT IS EARLY SERAL HABITAT?

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Following a stand disturbing event like wildfire, disease, and major wind disturbances, a forest typically progresses through several stages from its resurgence to becoming an old-growth stand. The different types of forest habitat created throughout this process can be categorized in seral stages.

As seen in the diagram above, the early seral forest stage is initially dominated by grasses and shrubs. Shade-intolerant tree species also establish in the early seral stage. The mid seral stage has a mix of species, with early seral species and mid seral species present in almost equal amounts. Late seral stands have both mid seral and late seral tree species present. The Potential Natural Community (PNC) stage where old-growth trees are present, features a composition where early or mid seral species are scarce or absent altogether.

 

WHAT THAT GENERALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE FOREST:

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EARLY SERAL – Grass and seedlings

MID SERAL – Saplings and young forest

LATE SERAL – Mature forest

PNC – Old-growth forest

Different kinds of wildlife prefer different seral stages as their habitat. For example, certain birds, butterflies, and moths prefer early seral habitat, whereas the northern spotted owl requires late seral and old-growth forest. Healthy forests contain a mix of various stages of regrowth.

 

WHY IS CLEARCUTTING MATURE FOREST TO CREATE EARLY SERAL SO PROBLEMATIC?

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Although early seral habitat is less abundant on the landscape than it has historically been, sacrificing mature forests to restore early seral habitat does not make sense. Early seral habitat can be created relatively quickly and easily; late seral habitat and mature forest can only be created with time. Additionally, the quality of early seral habitat created by stand-replacing wildfire or disease cannot necessarily be recreated by regeneration harvest. What this means is that we could end up losing critical mature forest on the landscape to create a habitat that may not provide the ecological benefit used to justify creating early seral through harmful forest management practices in the first place.

 

WHAT HAS REGENERATION HARVEST AND EARLY SERAL CREATION LOOKED LIKE ON THE GIFFORD PINCHOT NATIONAL FOREST?

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Cascade Forest Conserevancy has encountered timber sales for the last few years that have incorporated regeneration harvest for early seral creation. Six years ago we weighed in on Swift, a timber sale in the Mount Adams Ranger District (MARD) that proposed just under 200 acres of regeneration harvest. Through our work in the collaborates and participation in the public commenting and objection process, the size of the regeneration harvest was reduced to 123 acres. We are now faced with a new proposal in the Upper Wind planning area of MARD that proposes 450 acres or regeneration harvest with nearly 200 acres proposed in mature, 120-year-old forest. We are concerned with the scale of regeneration harvest and the inclusion of critical mature forests. We will be working with our collaboratives and the Forest Service, as well as participating in the public commenting process over the coming months to remove older mature forest stands from the proposal and reduce the overall acreage of regeneration harvest.

July 31, 2020

In 2018, Cascade Forest Conservancy partnered with Cowlitz Indian Tribe to reintroduce beavers to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest for the first time since the 1930s.

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of these animals to the health of the forest. In his award-winning book, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, Ben Goldfarb describes the fur trade that eradicated beaver populations as an ecological and social disaster on par with the destruction of the bison herds of the Great Plains.

Beavers are a keystone species–dam-building, wetland restoring, water-storing, habitat engineers. The weight of their ponds push water deep into the ground, refilling aquifers and allowing water to be in the system even during dry summers. The slack waters and ponds beavers create help filter pollutants out of water systems, dissipate floods, disrupt the spread of fires, and create habitat that greatly benefits other species. In some parts of the West, wetlands cover 2% of the total land area but contain 80% of an ecosystem’s biodiversity. As the effects of climate change accelerate, the benefits beavers bring to the landscape are more important than ever.

So far, this project has been a success, and it’s still going strong!

 

We’re expanding the project and releasing even more animals this year. Here is the latest.

Our Program Director, Shiloh Halsey, and Science and Stewardship Manager, Amanda Keasberry are now permitted by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to house and relocate beavers in multiple SW Washington counties. In July, we completed building our new beaver housing facility on land belonging to a generous supporter. Trapped beavers must be kept in housing facilities where we monitor their health and collect data before release.

We’re thrilled to be expanding the capacity of this program. We plan to release 3-4 beaver families this fall–families of beavers are made of between two to six animals.

This year, the project will benefit from an additional partnership. Researchers from Washington State University Vancouver are working on a new way to track beavers and understand their impacts, one that uses environmental DNA taken from water samples. The researchers will be working with the beavers who pass through our new facility and tracking them post-release. The new technique they are developing could be key to monitoring wild and reintroduced beaver populations without having to physically track down individual animals.

June 3rd, 2020

Here at the Cascade Forest Conservancy, we work every day to protect the places and people of southern Washington’s Cascades. Some may wonder why an environmental organization should take a stand on an issue some would consider beyond the scope of our mission. We don’t see it that way. Our efforts are regional, but our vision, one in which human communities exist in harmony and peace with the thriving natural world, is global. Racism and racist violence are antithetical to that goal. Environmental wellbeing is not possible apart from social and racial justice.

The protests that have spread across our nation are not solely about the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police officers. We are still mourning the death of Emmett Till. Of Tamir Rice. Of Sandra Bland. Of Trevon Martin, and countless other precious lives. We are still mourning the historical looting and land theft of the indigenous peoples of our region, and the continuing discrimination and injustice these communities face today.

A majority of our staff benefit from white privilege, as do many other leaders within the environmentalist movement. Historically, conservationists have not been vocal leaders in the long fight for social and racial justice in this country. We can no longer bear to remain in the silence our privilege affords.

At CFC, we are committed to listening, and speaking up when we see injustice–whether that be environmental policies that endanger the health and safety of marginalized communities, unequal opportunities to safely enjoy the benefits wild places provide, unjust laws, or police brutality.

We ask that you join us. Listen to and amplify the voices of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and POC perspectives. Research intersectional environmentalism. Read about the history of Vanport. Educate yourself about the history of indigenous peoples in our region (Vine Deloria Jr.’s Indians of the Pacific Northwest is an excellent place to start) and continue to fight for a world that is sustainable, whole, and where black lives matter.

May 22 2020

If you’re anything like us, you can’t wait to get back out on the trail this summer. It was recently announced that after COVID-19 closures, most of the day-use trails and recreation areas in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest have reopened. As glad as that news makes us, the situation is far from back to normal. Here’s what you need to know before hiking in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest during the pandemic:

Check ahead of time to confirm that the area you plan to visit is open. You can find information on current trail openings and closures at the Gifford Pinchot National Forest’s website here. 

Site facilities may still be closed. Just because the trailhead is open, does not necessarily mean the site’s facilities are. Vault bathrooms may be open, but the Forest Service will not be maintaining them as usual because employees don’t currently have the PPE to do so safely. There is no guarantee that open facilities are COVID free. Take precautions for your own safety and the safety of others. Plan (and pack) accordingly.

Avoid crowded areas. If you get to a trailhead and the parking lot is full, don’t hike there. Period. The trail will be too crowded to safely practice social distancing. Plus, if you park on the side of the road, you could be towed, and who wants to end a day in the woods trying to hitch a ride to an impound lot? Not us. Probably not you either. Have a plan B (maybe even a plan C) before you head out.

DO NOT visit stores in rural communities. Can’t stress this one enough: unless you’re a local resident, don’t stop into stores in rural communities. Plan ahead and bring everything you’ll need with you. Don’t risk exposing people in rural communities to the virus because you didn’t bring enough water or snacks.

Campgrounds are still closed, but dispersed camping is allowed. Campgrounds currently remain closed and the GPNF is working to open them with safety as the number one priority.  If you choose to disperse camp, please take all of your trash home and dispose of human waste properly.

These are strange times, so be safe out there. If a hiker or other recreational user gets into trouble, response times will likely be longer since local emergency responders (many of whom are volunteers) are also under the Executive Order unless necessary or exempted. Emergency responders are also focusing on keeping their local communities safe. So remember, always pack the 10 essentials. Bring more food and water than you think you need. Bring basic first aid, supportive footwear, and rain-gear, no matter what the weather forecast says. Tell someone where you are going and when you will be back.

We’ll see you (from a safe distance) on the trail!