Central Washington Initiative

Resilient Landscapes, Resilient Communities

The Forest Service has been working to manage the health of millions of acres of national forests across the American West for decades, but the scale and methods of work on the ground have not matched the need. Overgrown forests, a warming climate, and a growing number of homes in the wildland-urban interface, following more than a century of rigorous fire suppression, have all contributed to what is now a full-blown wildfire and forest health crisis.

The Forest Service recently launched a robust, 10-year strategy to address this wildfire epidemic in the places where it poses the most immediate threats. The strategy combines a historic investment of Congressional funding with years of scientific research and planning into a national effort that will dramatically increase the scale of forest health treatments over the next decade.

The Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest has been selected as an initial investment landscape, which we are calling the Central Washington Initiative. The Central Washington Initiative is an all hands, all lands effort to implement the national Wildfire Crisis Strategy, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and Washington House Bill 1168 to promote resilient landscapes and resilient communities that are adapted to changing wildfire conditions.

We have an unprecedented opportunity to meaningfully change the trajectory of wildfire risk to communities and to promote forest health and resilience, and we want you, our community members and forest users, involved.

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Map of Central Washington Initiative planning area