The Re-Evolution of Forest Activism in the Methow Valley

Ric Bailey // Methow Forest Forum 

The Methow Forest Forum was started from scratch in 2021 by seven individuals who love the Methow Valley and call it home. Most of us are semi-retired, some veterans of the “forest wars” of the 1980’s and 90’s. We’d heard rumors about some Forest Service “fuels reduction” projects, supposedly to protect us from wildfires. After the tragic Methow fires of 2014 and 2015, any reference to fire management had a favorable ring in our community.

We were soon walking through a sloppy 15-acre clearcut, a product of the “Mission Restoration Project,” the first of four Methow projects by the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. The local Libby Creek neighborhood tried valiantly to stop it, but fell short. We focused on the next one, using Mission to illustrate what’s in store. Nearly 200,000 acres of national forest—much of it presumed protected as Late Successional Reserves under the Northwest Forest Plan—is scheduled for commercial logging. It’s basically the same brand of log production-based timbering we were railing against 40 years ago. These timber forays were going to ruin many of the things we love about the Methow.

We looked for support, but found many of the conservation organizations we’d always relied on to protect public land were working within a sanctioned USFS “collaborative” to develop the next three projects, Twisp, Midnight, and Upper Methow, while the rest of the public was being kept in the dark. At first, we submitted comments to the Forest Service, attended meetings, and went on agency tours. It didn’t take long to realize the futility of trying to improve the projects. So we set out to defeat them. We’re now consulting with scientists, conducting ground truthing, and hiring lawyers. 

But we’re gaining momentum. We’ve received some generous donations and recently incorporated as a nonprofit. Our public meeting last fall attracted 185 people. Our lawsuit against the Twisp Project temporarily halted logging. We’re developing a science-based alternative plan for ecologically responsible fuels reduction. As we learned ages ago, there’s only two things that ever protect land: laws, and people.