Over the past few years I've spent a decent amount of time on the
north-eastern end of the area covered by the project. It's hard to
imagine an area that is more lightly used for recreation (in an acre
per-capita sense). It is also ran roughshod with cows in many areas.
Unusually for a National Forest, the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness protects
the riparian areas; the rivers, creeks, canyons and their immediate
watersheds, but the higher elevations in the Umatilla N.F. are largely
unprotected and frequently over-grazed. I don't see much of a problem
with "understory" anywhere in my end of the Blue Mts. I suppose there
are some wildfire fuels that could be removed, but I have a feeling that
this project has more to do with local economies than the ecology of the
region. For as few folks as live in and around the Umatilla NF, it gets
used pretty hard by cattle ranching.
Mike Clarke
Pullman WA
On Tue, Mar 22, 2016 at 6:40 AM, Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
P.S. Here is a link to the project website:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=48582&exp=overview
