By Dale Swedberg

Recently the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Sinlahekin Wildlife Area became Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified as a part of the intervention management on approximately 5,000 acres of fire-dependent wildlife habitat.

The Sinlahekin Wildlife Area is the first wildlife area established in Washington when 2 parcels were purchased at an Okanogan County Tax Sale in 1939. Since that time the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area has grown to be about 14,000 acres including about 2,800 acres of Federal Lands under Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administration. About 6,000 acres, of the approximately 14,000 acres, is dry forest characterized by ponderosa pine with some Douglas fir. Like many other dry “fire dependent” forests of the Western US, forests of the Sinlahekin have had fire excluded as well. Exclusion of fire and especially alteration of the historically “frequent fire regime” has taken an untold and unrealized toll on our forests and rangelands. Absent the historic frequent fire regime, ponderosa pine has become extremely dense in areas (creating lodge pole like conditions that result in very extreme fire behavior, increased disease and parasites), have encroached into meadows and shrub-steppe habitats. 

A major objective of management on the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area is to restore the historic fire regime. In order to accomplish this fuel reduction needs to be implemented first. Forests need to be thinned by logging and hand thinning. Once this is accomplished then fire can be re-introduced through the use of prescribed fire.


Before thinning


After thinning


Before


After

Prescribed fire is the safe knowledgeable application of fire under controlled conditions to meet management objectives. Fire dependent habitat needs fire to stay healthy and resilient. Fire and fire by-products provide many benefits. By-products and benefits include: 1) high heat needed by seeds of certain plants to germinate such as evergreen Ceanothus (Ceanothus velutinus), heat and high heat kills fire sensitive species such as Douglas fir and thins fire-adapted species such as ponderosa pine; having a thinned forest reduces competition for sunlight, nutrients and moisture generally maintaining healthier trees with fewer diseases and parasites; high heat results in exposure of mineral soil which certain seeds need to germinate such as Western larch, heat and combustion reduces abundance and density of vegetation that uses lots of moisture thereby increasing the amount of water moving into the aquifer and /or surface water; 2) charcoal helps build soil and increases water holding capacity of soil, charcoal also absorbs allelopathic chemicals given off by certain plants such as weeds that keeps other plants from growing next to them; 3) wood smoke or more specifically a chemical in smoke increases the germination rate and vigor of seedlings of certain plants such as bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) and basin wild rye (Elymus cinereus); 4)  combustion of fuels reduces fuels on the landscape and reduces chances of extensive severe unwanted fire effects; 5) irregular burns and fire effects on the landscape creates a mosaic of habitat conditions that benefits a diversity of wildlife; 6) ash from fire maintains a soil pH favoring fire dependent species. These are only a few of the many examples of the benefits of fire to a fire dependent ecosystem.

It is hoped that as an FSC Certified forest that timber from the Sinlahekin will result in a bit of extra funding that can be applied to helping restore the fire dependent habitat. As of December 2010, Boise Cascade, L.L.C. has purchased over 20MBF of FSC Certified ponderosa pine sawlogs and douglas fir peelers to be used in paneling. Boise has expressed interest in purchasing more FSC Certified material resulting from fuels reduction at the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area.

The Nature Conservancy deserves special recognition as an exceptional partner in this effort. Recently the Sinlahekin was designated as a Fire Learning Network (FLN) Demonstration Landscape.