The commercial thinning phase of the Upper Applegate Watershed (UAW) Restoration Project is scheduled to resume mid-December 2024, with the remaining 215 acres targeted for completion by February 2025.  

This long-term, community-informed restoration effort aims to improve forest health and enhance wildlife habitat, while reducing the risk of severe wildfire to the ecosystem. Across the 52,000 acre watershed of lands mostly administered by the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and Bureau of Land Management Medford District, 18,000 acres have been strategically selected for treatment with ecological thinning and prescribed fire. The project is implemented through a Master Stewardship Agreement among the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative, and The Nature Conservancy. Further collaborative guidance is provided by the Rogue Forest Partners. 

The commercial phase covers a total of 878 acres and involves the cutting of small- to medium-diameter trees (mostly Douglas-fir) that have been carefully marked by lead implementation partner Lomakatsi Restoration Project’s ecological forestry team with oversight from U.S. Forest Service foresters. This phase, which began in December 2023, utilizes helicopters to transport the cut logs to a staging area, to minimize soil impacts on steep slopes. The logs will be sold to Murphy Veneer, with the revenue generated helping to offset the cost of the restoration work.  

The work continues to be implemented by Timberline Helicopters Inc., through a contract with Lomakatsi, with oversight from Lomakatsi and USFS staff. Timberline crew members are cutting the marked trees beginning December 16, with helicopter yarding anticipated to begin around the beginning of January.  

Learn more about this stewardship-based project and its benefits in this Lomakatsi blog post from the start of the commercial phase: https://lomakatsi.org/ecological-commercial-thinning-begins-in-upper-applegate-watershed/