News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The Sisters Ranger District has gained a national reputation for innovative partnerships and projects that enhance the health of Sisters Country forests. Those efforts earned prestigious recognition this year: the district earned the 2011 Chief's Award for Sustaining Forests and Grasslands from Forest Service Chief Thomas L. Tidwell.
Sisters Ranger District silviculturalist Brian Tandy will fly to Washington, D.C. for the December 5 awards ceremony.
Tandy expressed both pride and a bit of reserve at the honor.
"It's a great honor to be recognized like this," he said. "We're just doing our job and it's nice to be recognized, I guess, especially at a national level."
Tandy's part of "just doing his job" is a leadership role in stewardship contracts, a means by which the district can leverage appropriated funding to supplement the value of timber to do thinning work that probably wouldn't fly as an old-school timber sale -work oriented toward fuels reduction and forest health rather than "getting the cut out."
"The stewardship authority is kind of a new thing," Tandy said. "We started embracing it kind of right off the bat. It allowed us to get a lot more work done at one time."
Sisters projects, including the Glaze Forest Restoration project near Black Butte Ranch and the Metolius Forest Management program, have become a high-profile showcase for that kind of work, drawing college forestry programs to view the work.
Professor Jerry Franklin of the University of Washington regularly tours the Sisters Ranger District with his classes.
"They're really doing an extraordinary job implementing the technical aspects of this," Franklin said. The forestry professor noted that creating the desired effect of variable density known colloquially as "gappy, patchy clumpy" is "very challenging for forests to do" and Sisters Ranger District's projects demonstrate that it can be achieved.
The Chief's Award also recognizes the district's role in restoring riparian habitat through the introduction of wood into the Metolius and restoration efforts on that river and on Whychus Creek. The district has also engaged in significant public outreach through the Tale of Two Rivers project led by Maret Pajutee.
Fish biologist Nate Dachtler said that effort at salmon and steelhead reintroduction provides exciting opportunities for collaboration with other agencies and interest groups.
"Everybody is working together for a common goal," he said. "We couldn't do most of what we do without partnerships."
The Sisters Ranger District's penchant for working with partners (including sometime-adversaries) is a significant part of the organization's success.
"We do a lot more collaboration," said Natural Resource Team Leader Bob Flores. A key partner is the Sisters Country community at large.
"The buy-in from the local public is a big part of that," Flores said. "We have a really strong connection with the local community. The commitment to the land is very strong."
Many of the district's personnel are long-time veterans, who have seen a lot of change in the Forest Service over 20-plus year careers. In his letter to District Ranger Bill Anthony announcing the award, Tidwell asked Anthony to "extend my congratulations to your team members Maret Pajutee, Mike Riehle, Nate Dachtler, Cari Press, Paul Powers, Brian Tandy, Dave Moyer, Monty Gregg, Ingrid Anderson and Bob Flores."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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