By Ron Brown & Faris Tanyos
 
December 1, 2008
 
GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest last week signed a 10-year stewardship contract to conduct restoration work on some 10,000 acres in the Wild Rivers Ranger District.
 
Forest managers are turning to 'stewardship' projects to help maintain forest health and create new work opportunities. Many of the projects focus on thinning or brush removal, some of which produce additional income to the forest.
 
"'Stewardship' is a way to respectfully restore the forest while putting people to work. And, people can make money off of it. They can restore the forest and out of it comes a usable product, and even bigger trees," says Wild Rivers District Ranger Joel King.
 
On Monday, more than a dozen potential contractors gathered at the U.S. Forest Service and BLM Interagency office in Grants Pass looking for information on how to tap into the new contracts.
 
"Construction is a little on the slow side, so this is giving us an opportunity to broaden our horizons," says Contractor Don Winslow.
 
The Siuslaw Forest has been using stewardship contracts for nearly 10 years now. Since they started, they have not had any timber sales challenged in court. However, the contracts are new for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.