New for 2018 is the addition of a four person stewardship crew that builds on Mt. Adams Resource Stewards’ interest in increasing our ability to positively impact the region’s forests and natural systems while creating meaningful employment opportunities. Project Lead, Emily Long, began with MARS last October, expanding on initial efforts to assess the viability of housing a local team of skilled employees that could work on everything from fuels reduction projects and prescribed burns to invasive weed control.
After months of constructive conversations with prospective partners, we made the leap in March hiring three crew members to join Emily on daily assignments that so far have included preparations for and implementation of our prescribed burn; tree planting, timber sale layout and defensible space work (fuels reduction) for private forest owners; noxious weed control for Underwood Conservation District and Columbia Land Trust; and meadow restoration for the US Forest Service. Project sites have ranged from the Columbia River Gorge and Hood River County, to Mt. Adams and the Simcoe Mountains.
While our project list continues to grow, if you have a project that might be a fit and are interested in a quote, contact Emily at (509)364-3600. Our sense is that given recent trends on the Mt. Adams landscape, the very skills that our crew has developed will be increasingly in demand moving forward.
