We've teamed up with Kittitas Conservation Trust, a local non-profit, to support them in stewarding and managing a 71 acre forest near Kachess Lake. Their goal is to create high quality wildlife habitat for a slew of wildlife species.

The updated plan and re-inventory we've done for KCT includes prescriptions and management recommendations that will improve forest health and help foster biodiversity. We look forward to working more with KCT on forest stewardship across the county. 

In the summer of 2025, we were hired by several adjacent private landowners with forest atop Cle Elum Ridge. Their forest is very young & dense, a legacy of unsustainable logging of the past that had no regards for forest health or ecosystem function. These dense areas of young conifers not only pose a huge wildfire risk, but also present a big forest health problem long term if not thinned.

This thinning & fuels reduction project qualified for majority cost share through Kittitas County Conservation District. When completed, the project footprint of over 200 acres will help protect the town of Cle Elum in the event of a wildfire that comes from the Teanaway or from the west.

In 2024, we were hired by Bryan Pitman, a Cle Elum small forest landowner with about 10 acres, to prepare a Forest Stewardship Plan. Bryan's property is quite unique, as a wetland meanders through much of it. Bryan explained to us his goals were to steward the forest and help maintain/improve wildlife habitat, with particular emphasis on only using methods with little or no environmental impact.

We found Bryan’s forest to be in excellent condition overall, with high-quality wildlife habitat for a variety of species. The Forest Stewardship Plan we developed for him includes detailed information about the unique soils on his property, practical guidance on how to better Firewise his home, and much more. We also identified one small area needing attention & provided Bryan with a practical recommendation to address it in a way that aligns with his commitment to minimal environmental impact. 

In July of 2025, we were contracted by Rainier Veneer, a family owned mill to oversee ~700 acres of forest health logging on Forest Service land atop Taneum Ridge. We've been working closely with the logger & Forest Service staff to ensure that forest health prescriptions are being met & that forest & soil resources are well protected. The logging will significantly reduce wildfire risk & get forest health back on track. 

We are retaining all of the large trees. The release these trees experience from thinning alleviates the excessive competition & stress many are experiencing. In time, they will become healthy again, moving them towards legacy trees with old growth characteristics. Large legacy trees are extremely underrepresented on the current landscape. These giants offer incredible ecosystem & habitat benefits to the hundreds of wildlife species that call Taneum Ridge home.

The occasional openings created from logging will allow regeneration of more fire resilient conifer species that require full sunlight to germinate, including western larch & western white pine. These species are at historic lows across this forest. Creating favorable conditions for their growth is vital for the ecological restoration of this forest. 

Kachess Village HOA hired us in 2024 to prepare a detailed Forest Stewardship Plan that qualified for DNR cost share funding. The HOA spans about 100 acres, with nearly 160 homes near Kachess Lake and 35 acres of continuous forest.

The Forest Stewardship Plan assesses forest conditions across the property & identifies high-priority areas for meeting the communities goals. It will serve as a valuable resource for both individual landowners and the HOA for the coming decades, offering strategies to reduce wildfire risk near homes, improve forest health & associated treefall risk, and enhance wildlife habitat.