C.O. volunteers to help monitor wilderness solitude

Volunteers from Bend-based Friends of the Central Cascades Wilderness will help conduct solitude monitoring studies in the Mt Washington and Mt Jefferson wilderness areas this summer, in partnership with the Deschutes and Willamette national forests.

The Forest Service is conducting these surveys using Forest Service employees, 30 volunteers from FCCW, and an intern funded by a National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance (NWSA) grant.

FCCW in association with Discover Your Forest applied for a NWSA Wilderness Stewardship Performance Grant to hire the intern for the Forest Service. FCCW was one of 18 organizations to receive a grant from NWSA out of 32 proposals submitted nationwide.

Richard Nix, FCCW president, said, “We are honored to be recognized by the NWSA and excited to assist the Forest Service in the wilderness beyond our normal trail work. Volunteers from both sides of the Cascade crest really stepped up to help us support this important project.”

Oregon State University provided guidance to the Forest Service and FCCW volunteers on locations to make the study scientifically valid.

“The focus of the study will be evaluating how the decisions made in the Central Cascades Wilderness Strategies Project will affect solitude in these two wilderness areas when those strategies are implemented in 2020, according to Jason Fisher, Wilderness lead for the Deschutes National Forest.

FCCW was founded in 2014 and is a 501(c)3 non-profit and is a partner with the Deschutes and Willamette national forests. FCCW provides boots-on the-ground support to the Forest Service in the Central Cascades wilderness areas. Activities include trail sign installations and campsite restorations.

For more information about Friends of the Central Cascades Wilderness, visit www.centralcascades.org/

For more information about Discover Your Forest, visit www.discoveryourforest.org/

Four more information about NWSA, visit www.wildernessalliance.org/