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Written by: Kim Quesnel Seipp, PhD

On the east side of the Cascades, Blue Forest has been working with Chelan County Natural Resources, the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, and the Washington Department of Natural Resources to understand the feasibility of developing a Forest Resilience Bond for the Upper Wenatchee Pilot Project. The project, which is currently under environmental review, is aimed at wildfire risk reduction, improved watershed health, and landscape resilience for ecosystems and communities.

Since the project is still in the planning phase, our site tour focused on seeing examples of overgrown stands, along with a few different potential fuel reductions prescriptions and examples of previous forest health treatments. We also saw built infrastructure in the project area.

In addition, later in the week, we had the opportunity to tour the Wildland Urban Interface and see how vulnerable the local communities are to catastrophic wildfire. One of the best parts of the tour was also getting the opportunity to see an excellent example of forest restoration that had been previously completed. Blue Forest is currently outlining a potential Phase I FRB in the lower watershed, close to these communities, but final actions will be determined after the environmental review process.

The trip was an excellent opportunity to make connections with our partners at the Forest Service, science partners at Pacific Northwest Research Station, and local and community groups. We were lucky to have the input of the Forest Leadership Team, including Forest Supervisor Kristin Bail, at our in-person planning meeting. Thank you to the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest and Wenatchee River Ranger District, our partners through the North Central Washington Forest Health Collaborative, and Washington DNR. In particular, we want to thank Chelan County Natural Resources Director Mike Kaputa, Cascadia Conservation District Forest Program Manager Patrick Haggerty, and Okanogan-Wenatchee Silviculturist Pete Weir for helping plan the field tours!