Regional Collaboration
The GP Task Force is integrating collaboration and restoration into the fabric of federal land management in the West. Since 2006, the GP Task Force has been partnering with conservation allies in Oregon to provide organizing groundwork, technical support and expertise to initiate and develop collaborative groups on the Mount Hood National Forest, the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area, Malheur National Forest, and the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest. The GP Task Force’s work in these four areas has played a catalyzing role fostering a regional shift in the way the Forest Service plans projects and engages with the public.
Collaborative public lands restoration offers a viable strategy for the West. Yet the scale of the problems we are currently facing require that our solutions are visionary and effective enough to meet the current and coming challenges. For example, climate change will have a host of impacts on biodiversity and healthy functioning ecosystems in the Northwest. Species will be migrating to habitats northward and upward (in elevation); drinking water quality now protected by headwaters in national forest lands will be threatened by the increasing frequency and severity of floods; and access to public lands for hunting, camping and other recreational activities could be limited by the deteriorating and flood-impacted road system.
A viable comprehensive strategy for public lands restoration in the Northwest needs to take these factors into account. In addition to climate, we need to consider the needs of large-ranging native carnivores and the impressive migrations of native steelhead and salmon. In short, we need to develop landscape-scale restoration strategies that help make our forests and watersheds more resilient to disturbance and more amenable to the recovery of native biodiversity. To meet this need the GP Task Force is re-focusing our regional collaborative work towards the development of landscape-scale restoration plans.
