Trash No Land was invited to a meeting with Clackamas Stewardship Partnership (CSP) a Forest Collaborative in Clackamas County.  TNL President, Bill Cogley, and board member Craig Yon attended the event, held in the Mt Hood National Forest.  Amongst the group who attended were representatives of the USFS Mt Hood, Clackamas County Dump Stoppers and a wide variety of folks from Soil & Water, DEW, private forestry, recreation/conservation advocacy groups, and more (25 attendees in all). All of whom are thoughtful and concerned about mindful stewardship on our forest lands.  It was a tour of stewardship project sites on County and other USFS or BLM lands.  Robert Roth is the CSP facilitator and coordinator for the trip.

The tour included a presentation from Dave Chase and Samantha Wolf on the Dump Stoppers program, a presentation from the CSP and a presentation from Trash No Land about our work with the firearm community, stewardship and activities, as well as, potential fire hazards and reduction recommendations.

We started our tour at a dispersed shooting site, (where shooting should have never-ever taken place), and we had a long talk about what was wrong there, the effects it has on the forest, the bad look it gives to the recreational shooting sports and our efforts to improve stewardship.  Throughout the day, target shooting was an ongoing topic.

Next stop was a site where we discussed unauthorized OHV travel and the restoration work being done there.

We traveled up the NF 45 Rd to the South Fork Culvert Replacement project where we had a first-hand opportunity to see the magnitude of the work in progress.

A really good thing is being done, not only to replace a failing culvert, but to restore and reconnect the fish and aquatic habitat with one fluid, navigable, stream.  It had been blocked to passage, up and downstream, because of a flood that damaged the old culvert and a waterfall off the end with a 6 foot drop.  These problems effectively created a separation of life up stream from the downstream crowd.  Soon, they will all live in peace and harmony!

The project contract cost is $684,000, with $225,000 from retained receipts from timber sales in the Mt. Hood National Forest and the balance from PGE.  In addition, Forest Service design and administration costs totaled about $20,300.  We met and talked with the awesome construction crew.  They said it’s one of their larger projects

 They are doing a fantastic job!

It was a good day and a day well worth the time invested.  It was a good thing for us to share our work with a group of other concerned organizations.  They now have a better understanding of our challenges and efforts to improve the recreational shooting sports on public lands.