2021 WSSAF Annual Meeting

Shared Stewardship in Washington State

April 6-7 2021, Virtual

Since the 2020 WSSAF annual meeting was cancelled due to the pandemic, the Mid-Columbia Chapter is excited to host the 2021 WSSAF annual meeting. The theme is Shared Stewardship, and presentations will highlight demonstrative engagements that illustrate federal, state, tribal, and private landscape-scale approaches resolving forest health and wildfire hazard risk problems. The “cross-boundary-centric” agenda features coordinated investments and outcome-based actions that have increased the pace and scale of management treatments near Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee— areas prioritized by the Washington State Forest Action Plan and the Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest Restoration Strategy—that are at a scale sufficiently meaningful to make a dent, and reconceptually transferrable benefiting other transboundary collaborations.

Agenda

The meeting opens Tuesday morning, April 6, with a general session featuring Vicki Christiansen, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, and George Geissler, State Forester, and other leadership as they set the stage for the meeting. After lunch, attendees will (virtually) travel to Lake Wenatchee to view video presentations featuring the Upper Wenatchee Pilot Project. The day wraps up at a “virtual coffee shop,” where author Jack Nisbet will tell the Leiberg’s story, one of an American physician and her Swedish naturalist husband who helped shape a turn-of-the-twentieth-century Northwest on the cusp of change, a story that opens a window into the human and natural landscape of a century past that reflects all the thorny issues of our present time.

Wednesday, April 7, begins with a talk about stand-level treatments for restoring forests to be productive and resilient through time, and a panel will discuss the role of partners in sharing stewardship of the landscape. We will take a virtual field trip to the Red-Tail Canyon Farm for lunch, hosted by family forest owners Ross and Marianne Frank. The next field trip stop will feature wildfire hazard treatment projects carried out between Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee. SAF Awards will be presented followed by A Virtual Timber Bid auction benefiting Forester’s Fund grants and WSSAF Foundation student and education-related scholarships.

Also on April 7, there will be a short Executive Committee meeting from 7:45 a.m. – 8:00 a.m., followed by a business meeting from 8:00-8:45 a.m.