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Nature Conservancy credits HB 1168 funding, prescribed burns for Cle Elum Ridge restoration
Summary
The Nature Conservancy described use of state House Bill 1168 funds and a mix of mechanical thinning and prescribed fire to restore roughly 1,700 acres on Cle Elum Ridge near Roslyn, and said DNR-supported work has extended the buffer around those communities.
Darcy Batura, director of forest partnerships for The Nature Conservancy, told the Senate Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks Committee on Jan. 13 that the organization has used state funding from House Bill 1168 to carry out mechanical thinning and prescribed burns on Cle Elum Ridge, adjacent to Roslyn and Cle Elum.
Batura said the Nature Conservancy has completed about 1,700 acres of restoration on the Cle Elum Ridge and that Department of Natural Resources restoration funds supported roughly 1,000 acres of that work. She said the organization treats thin, masticate and then follows with prescribed fire once fuels have cured.
The work, Batura said, is intended to restore historically fire-adapted western dry forests and reduce the risk of catastrophic canopy fires to nearby one-way-in, one-way-out towns. “There’s no future in western dry forests without fire,” she said, adding that the question is whether fire…
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