Washington Forester Wants Shared Stewardship Program To Continue

Last year, the USDA and the U.S. Forest Service announced a collaborative strategy to address key forest issues, such as wildfire suppression and containment, an effort known as "shared stewardship".

"When this was announced, Secretary Perdue made a fairly bold statement that all State Foresters keyed in on. He said we will commit to work more closely with the states to strengthen the stewardship of public and private lands, and that resonated with us heavily."

Washington Forester George Geissler said State Foresters want to continue to be a major partner in strategy implementation.

"The bills on long-standing partnerships that are already in place and it encourages the active management on all lands. We're looking for cross-boundaries work here, on scales that we have not seen in most places."

Geissler notes shared stewardship relies on taking existing tools, programs and data and using them on the ground level, in the most collaborative and flexible way possible.​

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