Summer 2017 ForestLife
Three million trees planted at Goose Lake Working Forest
Tree number 2,895,001 (more or less) being planted by Pacific Forest Trust President Laurie Wayburn.
After two fires ripped through the area, most of the Collins’ Goose Lake Working Forest was scorched. The 2008 Fletcher Fire and the 2012 Barry Point fire left little behind except blackened dead, or dying, trees on 22,000 acres of this 33,000-acre property in Modoc County.
Today, that same land is a huge nursery growing three million ponderosa pine seedlings, thanks to a partnership between Pacific Forest Trust and Collins, the family-owned forest management company that owns the property which spans the California/Oregon border.
The reforestation project took two years to complete with the majority of trees planted this past year. The extended rains this year will be a major boost for the new trees.
Pacific Forest Trust secured a $2.5 million grant from the Wildlife Conservation Board to launch the massive planting. Additional grants have been made by CAL FIRE, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The land is protected by, and managed under, a conservation easement, ensuring that this new forest will continue to grow for future generations, providing multiple benefits: jobs for Modoc County residents, cleaner water and air—not to mention habitat for some spectacular animals including greater sandhill cranes, bald eagles, and great grey owls, one of the largest owl species in the world.
Read more about the Goose Lake Working Forest project.
Here is some of the planting in action: