CARSON — It was an international meeting of the minds in the middle of the woods.
On Thursday, a blend of Ukrainian university scholars and business professionals visited parts of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest near Carson to learn about capitalizing on forest products beyond felling timber.
“This trip shows there is money in berries, mushrooms and boughs,” said Lesya Loyko, of FORZA, a nongovernmental organization focused on sustainable development in the Carpathian region of Ukraine. “We want to help make the switch in the mind to multifunctional forests.”
Representatives from the U.S. Forest Service and employees of the Cowlitz Tribe brought the Ukrainians into the forest to show them how and where special forest products such as mushrooms, berries and beargrass grow naturally. They also explained how those materials are managed and commercially and culturally used in Southwest Washington.
Similar to the Pacific Northwest, the Carpathian region is a heavily timbered and mountainous area where many residents depend on the forest for their livelihoods. As happened in the Northwest decades ago, Ukrainians recently started questioning logging practices in the Carpathian region. At the same time, people there are concerned about how harvesting fewer trees could affect local economies. Now groups like Forza are stepping in to introduce the Ukrainian government and businesses to forest management practices that are sustainable for forests and the communities that depend on them. Part of that means collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service to learn how it dealt with reduced timber harvests.
“This trip is dedicated to the use and processing of non-timber forest products,” Loyko said.
The Forest Service’s special forest products program allows people to buy permits or contracts to harvest items for personal use or as a source of income. Just as forests in the Pacific Northwest once produced a lot of wood, they now are leaders in the production of special forest products such as mushrooms, tree boughs, beargrass and huckleberries. The revenues from the program enable the Forest Service to manage resources and pay for administrative costs. Valued at close to $1 million, the Gifford Pinchot’s special forest products program comprises about a third of what is sold in the entire National Forest system.
The Ukrainians learned from Nathan Reynolds, an ecologist with the Cowlitz Tribe, about how for centuries indigenous people used special forest products for food, tools and housing.
Tetiana Zhyla is an economist and researcher who works for a private company but also works with a Swiss organization to change Ukrainian laws on non-timber products. In the region she focuses on, 6 percent of the community’s annual income is derived from harvesting wild mushrooms and blueberries and selling them to Western Europe.
She said she questions the ecological sustainability of urbanization and came to see how people living near the forests profit from special forest products.
“For me, it’s important how people can use products locally for sustainable development,” she said.
In addition to managing the national forests, the Forest Service works with international and local environmental groups around the world to share expertise on sustainable forestry and habitat conservation. The work with FORZA is just one of a number of collaborations with groups around the globe.
“Clean air and clean water doesn’t stop at borders,” said Shelia Slemp of the Forest Service International Program.
