An $886,999 joint grant has been awarded to the Nisqually Indian Tribe, Nisqually Community Forest and Northwest Natural Resource Group to encourage ecological forestry practices and mitigate effects of climate change.
The project covers 5,500 acres of the Nisqually Community Forest, including habitat for threatened salmon species.
The grant will help to thin younger trees strategically, which will help older trees grow and recover native habitat, according to a press release from the organizations receiving the grant.
The grant comes from The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and is part of a larger $5 million grant to help various natural climate solutions across the Pacific Northwest.
“This is the forestry of the future,” said David Troutt, director of the Nisqually Tribe’s Department of Natural Resources, in an announcement about the joint grant.
“Our approach will accelerate forest resiliency, increase carbon sequestration, provide steady local forestry jobs, and greatly advance recovery of our threatened salmon.”
The project looks toward historical knowledge of indigenous people and communities from the region. Projects will be conducted in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, British Columbia and Idaho, with the majority led by Native American and First Nations partners, said the press release.
The Nisqually project is one of six natural climate solutions (NCS) projects with funding from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which hopes to increase climate change mitigation in the region.
According to the organizations, NCS can provide up to 37% of the cost-effective global CO2 mitigation needed through 2030 to stabilize warming to below 2°C. In the United States, NCS have the potential to mitigate up to 21% of net annual emissions.
“We are in a critical window where natural climate solutions have immense potential to accelerate climate-change mitigation efforts while also providing key biodiversity and human well-being co-benefits,” said Yuta Masuda, director of science for the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and co-author of several recent studies on NCS, in the announcement.
Nisqually Community Forest acquires and manages working forests in the Nisqually Watershed to provide sustainable economic, environmental and social benefits to local communities, the announcement states. Founded in 2014, it is now the largest nonprofit community forest in the Pacific Northwest.
Northwest Natural Resource Group is a nonprofit organization that promotes ecological forestry — a management approach that mimics natural processes wherever possible and treats the forest as a whole system, according to the press release.
It operates primarily in Washington and Oregon, and focuses on forests owned and managed by private landowners, smaller forest product companies, municipalities, tribes and nonprofit organizations.
The Nisqually Tribe historically had seasonal villages along more than 80 miles of the Nisqually River. They were natural stewards of these sacred places along with their partners, the announcement states.
The tribe has helped protect and restore land, as well as purchase land in the Nisqually watershed. Their community is now centered between Yelm and Lacey.
Other organizations benefiting from the Paul G. Allen grant include University of British Columbia, Trout Unlimited, Coeur d'Alene Tribe, the Nature Conservancy and Bonneville Environmental Foundation.
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Southsoundguy
“Mitigate the effects of climate change” is a meaningless phrase intended to evoke an irrational emotional response so that the state can extract more resources from people and the economy and redistribute them how it sees fit. To the extent this project has any benefits, it’s simply good forest management. These percentages of co2 and temperature is made up BS, though. If anything, we need more co2 as that will make for a greener planet. People need to accept the climate is changing and its a natural process of which we are part.
Wednesday, March 12 Report this
Westside
Dear Southsound guy,
The grant comes from a private foundation not the state. And, I strongly encourage you to look into atmospheric science further; the idea of adding more co2 is straight out of fossil fuel propaganda, not to mention the amount of water used to refine fuel… and heavy metals and toxic waste produced in the extraction process. Our NW forests suffer greatly from environmental toxins and under a warming climate
Wednesday, March 12 Report this
Snevets
Thank you for sharing. Also thank you @Westside for stating the facts.
Wednesday, March 12 Report this
Southsoundguy
Westside, I have. There is a clear logarithmic relationship between co2 levels and radiative forcing. The IR absorption spectrum is full in the very narrow co2 bands, meaning there is no appreciable effect of adding more co2. Here is a link: https://clivebest.com/blog/?p=1169
The other pollution you speak of is real and has been mitigated through technological improvements. Some will always remain, but that is simply reality and the price of civilization. Furthermore, the fact that the money is being delivered by a nonprofit org does not necessarily mean it wasn’t first extracted by the State, as recent DOGE work has revealed.
These are the facts.
Wednesday, March 12 Report this
Westside
Southsoundguy-
I would encourage everyone to dig a little deeper about affirmative statements that I am reading from you. I see the world as a very complex place and our understanding is limited. I would prefer to lessen environmental impacts upstream of the problem rather than an engineering fix. Upstream solutions are far cheaper than cleaning them up etc. While I disagree with most of not all of your premises, I would think we could find common ground around the idea that forest thinning, done thoughtfully, can benefit our Westside forests? I wish you the best
Wednesday, March 12 Report this
Laceyreader11
Southsoundguy seems to be quoting very old data, perhaps from someone named
Clive Best. A point to agree on is that this project is good forestry management, and very important.
DOGE has not provided anything relevant, nor has it been transparent or provided backup data for their false claims.
The Paul G. Allen Foundation does not get its money to award grants from the state; it is self-funded from its assets. Even if it did, the importance here is the effect forests have on the earth: its streams, our air, pollution, the salmon, all forest creatures - all are connected and work in symbiosis. CO2 emissions have warmed the planet: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/?intent=121
Wednesday, March 12 Report this
Southsoundguy
Data is data and physics is physics. The fact that the world is a complex system is precisely why I don’t buy into any of the so called climate science that has been predicting doom and gloom for 50+ years. Just admit that this ideological for libs.
Thursday, March 13 Report this