Gifford Pinchot

Fish and wildlife biologists are working to help restore native trout, wolf, and big game populations to the Pacific Northwest North Cascade mountain range. Native salmonids (trout, steelhead, and salmon) need cool, clean waterways. Roads and road crossings (and their associated culverts) can funnel sediments into streams and act as barriers to fish movement. Wolves require an adequate prey base of deer and elk to maintain healthy, sustainable populations, and winter months are considered likely to be the most difficult period of the year for their survival.

The Gifford Pinchot Task Force (GPTF) works to protect and restore the ecosystems of the Central Cascades with a particular focus on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The 1.3 million acre GPNF stretches from the Columbia River Gorge on the south to Mount Rainier National Park on the north, and includes Mount St. Helens on the west and much of Mount Adams on the east.

The Gifford Pinchot Task Force utilized multiple biological and physical datasets to determine and prioritize watershed restoration areas and activities in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. To develop watershed restoration plans, the GPTF used national forest inventoried road and roadless areas data and the Pacific Biodiversity Institute’s un-inventoried roadless areas greater than 5,000 acres. The Task Force conducted a visual assessment of non-major roads eligible for closure and/or removal as a way to significantly increase the size of large existing roadless areas.

Additionally, the GPTF used deer and elk biological winter range habitat data layers as a proxy for priority wolf habitat. Non-major roads that intersected with deer and elk biological winter range were prioritized for removal or winter closure. Collectively, these datasets were used to determine priority watershed restoration areas and activities. To read more about this project, see the GPNF Demonstration Project or contact Emily Platt, Executive Director of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force.