Upper Valley lands plan allows us to create our future

By Rufus Woods

Finding common ground and working together for collaborative solutions is by far the most productive way to get things done. That model worked splendidly when the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, the Trust for Public Land and Chelan County worked together with a multitude of agencies, organizations and individuals to develop a community-based plan protecting the Stemilt basin.

Now the county, TPL, CDLT and The Nature Conservancy are taking on a more ambitious effort – the Upper Wenatchee Community Lands plan, which will bring together a broad group of stakeholders to develop a strategy for 38,000 acres in three watersheds — Nason Creek, Peshastin-Blewett and Chumstick. Three separate plans are envisioned.

Weyerhaeuser recently acquired the lands from Longview Fibre and community input will be used to identify areas for recreation, working timberlands, conservation and fire protection, and more.The potential is there for developing working community forest lands that could create jobs in timber harvesting and thereby reduce forest fuels that put us at risk for catastrophic fires.

To read the full article, please visit the Wenatchee World.