ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Blue Mountains Forest Partners is proud of our accomplishments. Below you can learn more about our work and how we are helping create healthy forests and healthy communities.
Dr. Johnston has been involved with the Blue Mountains Forest Partners for more than a decade by providing the forest collaborative and the Malheur National Forest with rigorous, place-based monitoring data, research, and synthesis on dry forest dynamics, disturbance processes, efficacy of ecological forestry restoration practices, and causes of mortality of mature and old growth trees on the Malheur National Forest.
Mechanical thinning is helping to improve the health and resiliency of seasonally dry forests in Eastern Oregon, according to research by Oregon State University. For the last decade, a team of scientists led by James Johnston, assistant professor in the College of Forestry at OSU, has trekked into a rugged area of the Malheur National Forest north of Burns to study the environmental effects of one thinning project.
Forest thinning is improving the robustness of older trees and enhancing native biodiversity on federal lands in Eastern Oregon, evidence that collaborative efforts to restore forests are working, research by Oregon State University shows. The study, led by James Johnston of the OSU College of Forestry, involved long-term monitoring and research partnerships between OSU, the U.S. Forest Service and local groups in Oregon’s Blue Mountains.
Some loggers headed in to cut down trees in the Blue Mountains may soon be prioritizing habitat over board feet. That’s because Blue Mountains Forest Partners, a group of stakeholders including loggers, environmentalists, ranchers, landowners, timber industry representatives, elected officials and federal land managers, has just finalized a new draft of what’s called a wildlife habitat zone of agreement.
Malheur Lumber Company in John Day used to be one of many mills in Grant County. By 2012, though, it was the last one and came very close to closing its doors for good. Then, the U. S. Forest Service agreed to increase restoration logging in Malheur National Forest, and that contract kept the mill going. Now, Malheur Lumber is one of three mills in Grant County.
We know what we need to do but do we have the will to do it? That was the burning question that defined last Thursday's screening of the documentary "The West Is Burning." The hour-long documentary was hosted by Discover Your Forest at the Sisters Movie House, a free event encouraging community members to learn and join in the discussion of wildfire risk and management in the western states.