JOHN DAY – Local foresters and land managers went into export mode last week, providing lessons in restoration and collaboration to a contingent of visitors who will take the information home to 14 foreign countries. The visitors were in Grant County May 6-8 as part of the International Seminar on Forest Landscape Restoration. The seminar began April 27 with programs and coursework in Portland, followed by a field trip to Bend and then John Day. The group leaves Portland for home this Wednesday. In Grant County, they visited the Camp Creek restoration area, the Marshall Devine restoration and harvest project, and the Oxbow Conservation ...

Collaboration that kept the John Day sawmill open may be a model as industry, agencies and environmental groups strive for a forest policy that everyone can live with. PORTLAND – The unexpected collaboration of industry, environmentalists and government agencies that saved mill jobs in Oregon’s Grant County could be a model for restoration forest policy elsewhere, panelists said at a May 27 timber symposium. Working with the U.S. Forest Service, the Blue Mountains Forest Partners helped forge a 10-year agreement to restore 272,000 acres of the Malheur National Forest through thinning projects and other work. The work, funded by a $2.5 ...