California: 10-year FS stewardship contracting expands Weaverville community forest
The town is now sandwiched by its own forests, with the old acreage
to the south and the new to the north.A 13,000-acre forest around
Weaverville is now under the watch of the community. The five-member
board of the Trinity County Resource Conservation District voted 5-0
late Tuesday afternoon to add 12,000 acres to the 1,000-acre
Weaverville Community Forest, said Pat Frost, the resource
conservation district manager. Although still considered part of the
Shasta-Trinity National Forest, the 12,000 acres north of Weaverville
will be managed by the district on the behalf of the public.
“Together
we are going to figure out what are some of the best things to do for
the community,” said Shasta-Trinity National Forest Supervisor Sharon
Heywood. The agreement went into effect immediately, so management of
the expanded forest now will be handled by the district at the
guidance of the community via a steering committee, Frost said. Any
member of the public may join the committee, he added. The district
and the Bureau of Land Management, which had managed the forest’s
original 1,000 acres, established the Weaverville Community Forest
through a stewardship contract in 2005. The contracts usually are made
between federal land agencies and timber companies so the companies
can guide management of timberland. The district’s new agreement with
the Forest Service is a 10-year stewardship contract. Heywood said she
sees the agreement as the start of a “closer, deeper” relationship
between the Forest Service and people who live in and near the woods
in Trinity County. The district already is interested in adding
another nearby 2,100 acres of land currently managed by the BLM to the
Weaverville Community Forest, but Frost said talks with the agency
likely won’t start until next year. “It’s a big step for us to go from
the 1,000 with the BLM to the 13,000 with the Forest Service and the
BLM,” he said. http://www.redding.com/news/2008/dec/25/12000-acres-added-to-weaverville-community/
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