The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service announced Thursday it will invest $35.1 million in Land and Water Conservation Fund projects in Oregon and Washington, including buying more land for a forest project near Reedsport in Douglas County.
The projects are designed to conserve critical forest and wetland habitat, support rural economic recovery and increase public access to national forests and grasslands, according to a USDA news release. The Forest Service administers the LWCF Land Acquisition and the Forest Legacy programs, which conserve public and private land.
Land-acquisition projects add lands to national forests. Three land-acquisition projects in Oregon and two phases of a project in Washington were approved for funding in 2021:
The Wasson Forest project (near Reedsport) will allow completion of a three-phase land acquisition in the Siuslaw National Forest that also received LWCF funding in 2019 and 2020. The lands include a segment of Wasson Creek, adjacent to the Devil’s Staircase Wilderness, that was designated in 2019 through the Dingell Act. Two phases of the Washington Cascades project (near Cle Elum, Washington) received funding to consolidate checkerboard lands on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest south of the Interstate 90 corridor. This will improve management for recreation and conservation efforts in the Yakima River Watershed. The Crooked River Gorge project (near Redmond) will improve recreation and river access for hiking, fishing, hunting, and paddling on the Crooked Wild and Scenic River Corridor in the Ochoco National Forest. The Elk Creek project (near Enterprise) will improve recreation access and camping opportunities along Elk and Crow Creeks on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
