Siuslaw National Forest

Ecosystem Restoration

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Ecosystem Restoration….Working with our Partners to Restore the Land

No, we are not fixing up an old house, but close to it. We are taking altered landscapes and returning them to a more natural function, focusing on the well being of ecosystems, like entire watersheds, or estruaries, or the coastal dunes.

At the time that early settlers came to the Coast Range, the natural landscape seemed limitless -- a wild land in need of taming to make a good home and livelihood. It made sense to clear valley bottoms for pasture land, to harvest timber for home building and economic gain.

A combination of management practices, development and other factors reduced resources to nearly unsustainable levels and led to the listing of several species. These practices greatly altered streams, upset tidal influences and introduced non-native plants.

Now, a unique and unlikely collaboration of individuals and organizations is working to bring it back. We call this restoration, and it is one of the Siuslaw National Forest’s primary visions.

How are we doing it?

Partnerships are key to this effort. Unprecedented agreements between agencies, universities and community members emerged to implement the work of restoration.Scientific research, technical expertise and collaboration ingenuity can produce a new model of restoration that will benefit ecosystems and communities for years to come.

Restoration Projects

You can find descriptions of several projects on the Restoration Projects page. Types of projects include:

• Road decommissioning

• Culvert replacement for improved stream flow and fish passage

• Planting of vegetation along stream beds

• Restoring the original stream meander

• Elimination of non-native invasive plant

USDA Forest Service, Siuslaw National Forest
Last modified Tuesday, October 24 2006