Quarterly Visit to Nason Ridge
The Northwest Community Forest Coalition’s recent spring quarterly meeting was held in Wenatchee, Washington. A great place to catch the balsamroots in bloom and just down the road from one of the state’s newest community forests —Nason Ridge. Through efforts led by Chelan County, Western River Conservancy, and Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, the 3,714 acre property, previously owned and managed by Weyerhaeuser, officially came into Chelan County ownership as a community forest in spring 2022.
The site provides an array of recreational and economic benefits to the local communities, and is vitally important to the health of fish and wildlife habitats throughout the region and on Wednesday, May 10, a number of coalition members were fortunate to get to experience the forest first-hand, guided by a crew of community leaders and forest experts.
Leading the tour was Erin McKay from Chelan County Natural Resources, and present were an array of folks from Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, Chinook Forest Partners, Kittitas Conservation Trust, Mount Adams Resource Stewards, Nisqually Land Trust, Nuveen Natural Capital, The Nature Conservancy, US Forest Service, Sustainable Northwest, Washington Association, Washington Conservation Action, Washington State Parks, Washington State Recreation and Conservation, Whatcom Land Trust, as well as invested community members.
View of Nason Creek near the entrance of the Nason Ridge Community Forest
The first stop of the tour convened at the park’s south entrance and ventured to the Chelan PUD powerline corridor, overlooking a bend in Nason Creek. Erin pointed out piles of logs awaiting creekside to be used for riparian restoration beneath the power lines owned and managed by Bonneville Power Administration. A significant portion of the forest’s funding comes from salmon recovery funds which contribute to restoring and maintaining efforts of critical fish habitat. We saw an example of salmon habitat restoration through the installation of Large Woody Structures to recreate natural log jams which benefit salmonid species. During this stop, Erin also discussed areas being considered for a south entrance parking lot, which would increase public access to the forest.
Looking at the Nason Ridge Trail, used most frequently as a cross country ski trail.
To get to our second destination, we traveled through on the main access road, an old logging road which is now part of an extensive trail system used for hiking, biking and skiing. At this stop, accompanying Park Ranger Wiley handed around a trail map and explained how the forest service provides in-kind stewardship of the community forest by grooming the cross-country ski trails in the winter. This is just one example of the many partnerships the community forest fosters in order to meet management goals and provide year-around public access. Another includes field support by the National Parks RTCA program, which assists in restoring conservation areas and creating recreation opportunities.
Mik McKee (Wester Rivers) and Wes Worden (Chinook Forest Partners) sharing details on the design of the property’s management plan.
We made it to the highest point on the tour, just barely able to make out a view through the tops of the surrounding trees. At this stop, Mik Mckee from Western Rivers Conservancy talked about the forest’s management plan and the property’s steep slopes that require particular caution when timber harvesting or applying wildfire treatments. He also highlighted the significant biodiversity harbored within the boundary, some of the priority species supported by the forest are chinook salmon, northern spotted owl, and gray wolf.
You can read the current Nason Ridge Management Plan to understand the goals of recreation, active forestry, and aquatic restoration on the site.