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The Tieton River Canyon Partnership
Cooperation for Conservation and Fire Learning
In many places where The Nature Conservancy works with partners, our conservation strategy is evolving to include restoring natural fire to the landscape. To advance this approach, the federal agencies and the Conservancy have established the Fire Learning Network, which brings together communities and stakeholders to plan for management and restoration of the landscapes in which they live and work.
An exciting example of the Fire Learning Network in action is emerging in the Tieton River Canyon in central Washington state, where a project that initially focused on the purchase of land has now turned into a successful partnership that will use fire as a key restoration tool.
The Tieton River Canyon lies in the heart of the East Cascades ecoregion, which boasts acres of white oak, ponderosa pine and riparian forestlands, many of them rare and all of them threatened. The Tieton River Canyon Partnership includes the Wenatchee National Forest, Naches Ranger District, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
This core group is reaching out to include new partners, such as the Yakama Indian Nation, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and the South Central Washington Resource Conservation and Development organization of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The project began with the Conservancy purchasing 10,000 acres of checkerboard land for conservation in public and private ownership. It has now evolved into a broad partnership whose goal is to promote fire management as a restoration tool on the larger landscape.
As with many fire partnerships, this approach includes a wide range of strategies, from ecology research and restoration-based tree and brush removal, to cooperative fire management planning, to use of LANDFIRE products for wildfire management, risk assessment and forest restoration planning.
Lessons learned will be exported from individual experiences into a much larger, integrated community of regional, national and global practitioners. We hope that the Tieton River Canyon will join a growing list of places where communities and partners have joined forces to use fire management to protect and restore the landscapes they cherish.
For More Information:
- Where We Work: The Nature Conservancy in Washington
The Nature Conservancy of Washington owns more than 50,000 acres of natural habitat and has helped to conserve more than 300,000 acres across the state. - Places We Protect: Tieton River Canyon and the Tieton River Canyon Project
The Conservancy, with support from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and several other partners, is working to protect 10,000 acres within the canyon. Successful completion of the project will knit together existing protected areas into a contiguous landscape of more than 20,000 acres of protected habitat. - How We Work: Global Fire Initiative
The Nature Conservancy employs a variety of innovative approaches and works at different geographic scales to reduce the threat of altered fire regimes. - How We Work: Fire Learning Network
Fire learning networks in the U.S. and in the Latin American/Caribbean region are helping governments, conservation practitioners and local communities develop and implement solutions to fire-related problems. - LANDFIRE: Improving the Science Behind Fire Restoration
LANDFIRE is a collaborative $40 million, 5-year partnership between the USDA Forest Service, Department of the Interior and The Nature Conservancy to generate landscape-scale maps and data describing vegetation, fire, and fuels characteristics across the United States. - How We Work: Nature Conservancy Partnerships
The Nature Conservancy pursues non-confrontational, pragmatic, market-based solutions to conservation challenges. This makes it essential for us to work collaboratively with partners – communities, businesses, government agencies, multilateral institutions, individuals and other non-profit organizations.
