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53 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, April 4, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 18, 2005 Stewardship workshop targets thinning BLM project will bring together forest experts to discuss handling of land near rural homes By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune WILLIAMS — All the facts will be thrown into the "Penny Stew" pot during a day-long workshop on the local stewardship project Saturday at the Williams Grange hall. The event begins at 9 a.m. and features nearly a dozen speakers, followed by a field trip to the nearby 100-acre Penny Stew site. The project is the sixth such contract awarded by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Oregon since Congress passed a bill in 2003 giving federal land management agencies the authority to issue stewardship contracts. The purpose of the Penny Stew is to thin vegetation on BLM land near rural homes to reduce the fire hazard and improve forest health while providing local employment. The project also relies on community collaboration. The agency awarded the contract to the Eugene-based Cascade Wildlands Inc. late last year. However, the work is being done in collaboration with the Lomakatsi Restoration Project, a local organization that focuses on forest restoration. Advertisement "More and more folks are getting interested in stewardship projects, especially in the wildland urban interface areas," observed BLM stewardship coordinator Blair Moody, one of the presenters at the workshop. "People are finding some common goals in these projects," he added. Other presenters at the workshop include Randy Carey, Williams Creek Watershed Council; Oshana Catranides, Lomakatsi; Chas Rogers, Williams Creek Watershed Council; Frank Lake, restoration biologist with the Karuk Tribe; Marko Bey, Lomakatsi; Don Tipping, Seven Seeds Farm; Mike Albers, Cascade Wildlands; Lesley Adams, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center; Jay Lininger, University of Montana graduate student in fire ecology; and Richard Hart, ecologist. Drinks and snacks will be provided, but participants are asked to bring their own lunch. A field trip to local National Fire Plan projects and Penny Stew will begin at 2:30 p.m. Under the terms of the $90,550 contract, Cascade Wildlands will harvest an estimated $20,000 in small-diameter trees as part of a pre-commercial thinning and fuels-reduction effort, offsetting the cost of the project, according to the BLM. The three-year contract allows the government to exchange goods for service, meaning it is paying only about $70,000 for more than $90,000 worth of work, officials said. The types of treatments to be used include thinning the forest, cutting brush, removing biomass material, hand piling and burning, said Terry Fairbanks, supervisory forester with the BLM's Grants Pass Resource Area. The contract area, which is split into a 40-acre and 60-acre unit, has lots of pine, oak and madrone mixed with Douglas fir. The Penny Stew is the second such BLM stewardship contract to be awarded in the Applegate River drainage. In 2003, the agency awarded the Bobar stewardship in the Little Applegate River watershed. It called for similar work on 111 acres. Bobar was one of the first two stewardship contracts awarded nationally by the agency. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Distance Education Diamonds Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Fasa Advertisement s