Washington's first - and so far, only - experiment in community forest management marks its first year of development this month. The Teanaway Community Forest north of CleElum on the east slopes of the Cascades is a 50,000-plus acre tract in the headwaters of the Yakima River basin.
The state bought the area from a private landowner in 2013 for $97 million. Ordinarily, the state Department of Natural Resources imposes land use rules on acreage under its aegis. But in the Teanaway Forest, an advisory group of 20 members is hashing out a new management plan. The group includes people who live, work and play there - the Yakama Nation, community and conservation leaders and several recreation groups from hikers to dirt bikers.
Advisory members began working last year to reconcile conflicting demands, to devise strategies for watershed protections. fish and wildlife habitat. forestry and grazing issues.
The stakeholder approach to public land use management is modeled after an initiative championed for years in Idaho's Owyhee wilderness region by Senator Mike Crapo. He jawboned long-bickering partisans to sit down together and thrash out a mutually agreeable plan which was approved by Congress last year.
In the Teanaway Forest, state land overseers believe the first year of work has been constructive and promising.
