To protect Ashland watershed's abundant natural beauty and resources, on January 20th, 2010 the Ashland City Council unanimously voted to form the Ashland Forest Resiliency Partnership. Partners fill specific roles and borrow on each organizational strength to meet community goals for the reduction of fire hazard and protection of the municipal water supply.
The City of Ashland, U.S. Forest Service, Lomakatsi Restoration Project and the Nature Conservancy collaborated to form the stewardship project's core partners. The original project goal was to complete restoration work on 7,600 acres of land over 10 years to support, preserve and restore wildlife habitat, water quality and a healthy forest ecosystem, all while reducing the threat of wildfire. After nearly 7 years of implementation, partners expanded the projects to include a cross boundary forest restoration for both public and private land.
City of Ashland: The City of Ashland assists the partnership with outreach and communications, landowner engagement, grant administration, project management and technical review. Citizen outreach is guided by the Ashland Forest Resiliency Community Engagement Plan.
Lomakatsi Restoration Project (LRP): Lomakatsi brings over 20 years of ecological
The Nature Conservancy: TNC manages multi-party monitoring for the AFR Project. Technical review for the project design and data collection are performed by scientists with TNC. Leadership for tours and public education is an important part of how TNC helps the collaborative process.
U.S. Forest Service Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest: USFS oversees project design and implementation. USFS professionals work to implement the collaborative, community-based project plan with compliance to the 10 year Stewardship Agreement.