Haugo: As you have suggested, saw mills aren’t in my bailiwick, but I think the mere fact that the Conservancy would consider such an investment speaks to the complexity and seriousness of the forest health situation we face east of the Cascades in our region.Įvergreen: It certainly does, especially given the possible risk to the Nature Conservancy’s reputation and credibility, and its historic role in forest conservation in the United States. Haugo: No I haven’t, but the Conservancy has been working for over a decade on forest health and resilience issues involving public lands across the nation.Įvergreen: We have been following the Conservancy’s journey into the public sector for some time now, but I think you’ll have to agree that the organization’s apparent desire to partner in the construction and operation of a saw mill is a game changer in the conservation world. McGee, but I must say that I’ve never heard of a conservation group taking such an unusual approach to the fulfillment of its mission. He’s also actively looking for investment capital.Įvergreen: I know that sawmilling is far outside your bailiwick, so I’ll get the details from Mr. Lloyd worked for Vaagen Brothers Lumber Company in Colville for many years before deciding he wanted to take a different approach. The Nature Conservancy has also hired a new a new staffer for our Seattle office whose job it is to look for large pools of investment capital with folks that are interested in both economic and ecological returns. Is there any truth to the rumor that the Nature Conservancy is actively shopping for someone with whom it can partner in the construction and operation of a saw mill in the Wenatchee area? Haugo, I’d like to start out with a question I don’t think I’ve asked a forest scientist in Evergreen’s 30-year history. In this interview, Haugo discusses the underlying causes of this decline and what the latest scientific research tells us we can do to slow tree mortality and reduce the risk of increasingly frequent and destructive wildfires.Įvergreen: Dr. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Stations in Wenatchee Washington and Bend, Corvallis, Pendleton and Portland, Oregon.
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The Nature Conservancy’s Washington and Oregon staffs do much of their research work in concert with the U.S. Although this is not yet the case in central and eastern Washington, the accelerating decline has become a matter of great concern, not just for the Conservancy and its cadre of scientists, but for Washington residents whose homes and communities now lay in the shadow of the largest forest fires in state history. In recent years, the Nature Conservancy has increasingly turned its attention to the disastrous decline in the health of the West’s national forests, some now in such bad shape that annual mortality exceeds annual growth. Haugo co-authored a landmark 2015 paper titled, “A new approach to evaluate forest structure restoration needs across Oregon and Washington, USA.” The paper, which was published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management and posted online in October of 2014, lays out a working strategy for addressing the rapid decline of Intermountain, mixed conifer, dry site forests in eastern and southwest Oregon and eastern Washington. He holds masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Washington, and is a widely published research scientist. Ryan Haugo has been the Nature Conservancy’s forest ecologist for northern Idaho and eastern Washington since 2011. Ryan Haugo The Nature Conservancy - Senior Forest Ecologist Yakima, Washington
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Just as there is no simple answer to the good-fire bad-fire question, there is also no single approach to conserving the forested landscapes we all treasure.” Elsewhere, we advocate for managing wildfires at the right place and time – when conditions are right. In forests that have traditionally supported timber economies, we can use ecological restoration strategies that rely on mechanical thinning and prescribed fire. To alter the unexpected course nature has taken, our focus should be on promoting resilient natural and human communities. Past societal values favored excluding fire from forests and that broke our natural link to fire, leaving us with forests that are more vulnerable to insects, diseases and uncharacteristic wildfires. What is currently inevitable is that there will be more big fires in our future. Society bases its answer to this questions on current values. “About three years ago, I wrote an essay in which I asked whether wildfire can be both good and bad at the same time.