Cooperative Land Management
Regardless of land ownership, tens of thousands of acres across the region are in need of the stewardship and restoration necessary for healthy forests, functioning ecosystems and thriving rural communities. MARS plays an integral role supporting and bringing together land managers to make good things happen on the Mt. Adams landscape.
Forest Stewardship at Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge
In addition to our close work around native species recovery and invasives control at CLNWR, MARS has been supporting the implementation of Conboy’s forest stewardship plan for more than a decade. The US Fish and Wildlife Service does not employ many foresters, and the ability for the agency to tap local restoration forestry expertise through a creative partnership has enabled the refuge to pursue restoration and habitat enhancement projects across more than 2,000 acres of forested uplands.
Bolstering capacity at the US Forest Service
For years, federal land managers at the US Forest Service have recognized the need to significantly increase the “pace and scale” of forest restoration across the national forest system. But the agency has been challenged to hire staff to implement field work that is essential to moving these projects forward. In response, MARS established a tri-forest agreement (Mt. Hood National Forest, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area) in 2023 that supports collaborations that have been several years in the making. Since 2021, MARS has hired field staff to work with the Gifford Pinchot pre-sales team to prepare stewardship and timber sale projects on the forest. MARS is also the fiscal sponsor for the South Gifford Pinchot Collaborative, a stakeholder group that works with the GPNF to define areas of consensus to keep needed projects moving forward without legal challenges.
