Brief History of Accomplishments and Why We Can Address the Need

The Colville Community Forestry Coalition has engaged in a collaborative problem solving process that addresses forest health and restoration. In late 2001 a group of 23 stakeholders convened to end to the conflict over forest resources by participating in this effort. The “side-boards” to the Coalition were developed. They are, first, that we are talking about the already logged and intensely managed forest stands of the region. Access to old growth is not within this discussion. Second, we will not promote any extensive new road systems and may support the removal of roads within the managed forest. Third, and most important to the survival of the Coalition, is the “blood oath” that this forum will be used only for our best creative thinking and problem solving. This is not the time or the place to re-kindle old conflicts.

The Colville Coalition is comprised of environmentalists, the timber industry, loggers, mill owners, educators, local government, agencies and citizens at large. The Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws were adopted in April of 2003. The necessary committees, including the Stewardship Committee, have been appointed.

A strategic decision was made in July of 2002, to address the Wildland Urban Interface fire threats to the communities within the Colville National Forest. The broader forest landscape issues would follow the Community Fire Plans. This would allow this Coalition of divergent viewpoints to reach some successes on projects that include thinning near and around homes. The Community Fire Plan Committee, the USFS and the DNR have begun to develop a Community Fire Plan in the upper Chewelah drainage. A great deal of support for this project has been generated. Model Fire Plans have been reviewed and a “template” has been used to begin to gather the needed information.

The Tri-County Resource Advisory Committee, the National Forest Foundation and local contributors have funded the Colville Coalition with $23,000 to build the formal organization and to begin the community fire planning and to propose a Stewardship Project to the US Forest Service. This application is a direct result of the success of the Coalition’s work with the US Forest Service on the Quartzite Project. The Coalition has successfully brought the concepts of Stewardship Authority, and the advantages that it provides for public land management to both the broad spectrum of the growing Coalition membership and, to a large degree, to the Forest Service itself.

Never before in the recent history of forest resource management in the three northeastern counties of Washington State has there been such a successful collaboration amongst community members committed to the theme of forest restoration. In a sense, the Colville Coalition realizes that this might be the last best chance to solve these resource issues together rather than to witness the further division within our communities tacitly contribute to the stagnation and collapse of both the ecological base and the economic base of the place that these people love. We can solve these problems.