BLM has the ability to enter into “Stewardship Contracts” to make forests and rangelands more resilient to natural disturbances. The contracts allow companies and communities to retain forest and rangeland products in exchange for services like thinning trees and brush or removing dead wood. Long-term contracts foster a public-private partnership to restore forest and rangeland health at a savings to taxpayers by allowing contractors to invest in equipment and infrastructure for making wood products or producing biomass energy. The Gerber Stew Stewardship Contract was awarded in September 2004 to a firm based in Bend, Oregon to implement restoration treatments and projects in BLM’s Klamath Falls Resource Area. Western juniper is [...]
Summary
BLM has the ability to enter into “Stewardship Contracts” to make forests and rangelands more resilient to natural disturbances. The contracts allow companies and communities to retain forest and rangeland products in exchange for services like thinning trees and brush or removing dead wood. Long-term contracts foster a public-private partnership to restore forest and rangeland health at a savings to taxpayers by allowing contractors to invest in equipment and infrastructure for making wood products or producing biomass energy.
The Gerber Stew Stewardship Contract was awarded in September 2004 to a firm based in Bend, Oregon to implement restoration treatments and projects in BLM’s Klamath Falls Resource Area. Western juniper is cut, burned and thinned to improve forest and rangeland health, and to reduce hazardous fuels as part of the National Fire Plan. Under the contract, forest-health projects generated timber that the contractor could use at local mills. The Gerber Stew Stewardship Contract provided an opportunity for BLM to meet restoration goals while supporting timber utilization markets, reducing wildfire risk, and providing employment for local rural communities.
Economic Impacts of Restoration. To date about $3 million has been spent on restoration work, providing $300,000 of forest products to help offset the cost of this work. Activities have included hazardous fuel reduction, rangeland restoration, riparian/spring enhancement, wildlife habitat improvement, road improvement and obliteration, fence repair, biomass utilization, and forest health restoration. Rural and community benefits include employment opportunities, a substantial reduction in smoke emissions as a result of utilizing over 38,000 tons of biomass, restoration treatments on over 6,000 acres, and miles of road improvement. The biomass material removed included fuel that was delivered to a power generation facility, clean chips that went to a product manufacturer for hardboard production, commercial sawlogs, and sawlogs used for a variety of landscape and household products. Forest and road restoration, logging activities, and processing of biomass from the Gerber Stew Stewardship Contract directly accounted for 12 jobs and over $660,000 in labor income per year (salaries, wages, and benefits) in the local area. Spending by contractors and site workers accounted for an additional 10 jobs and an additional $350,000 in local labor income per year. Combined, the Gerber Stew Stewardship contract is estimated to have supported 22 jobs per year in rural counties in southern Oregon and northern California for the eight years (2004–2011) and over $1 million per year in local labor income.