Restoring the Nooksack Watershed Through Community-Driven Forest Stewardship

Native salmon runs in the South Fork Nooksack River watershed have dramatically declined from historical levels, primarily due to the degradation of their habitat and a persistent decline in water quality and quantity. Research suggests that commercial logging—the dominant land use in the watershed—has been a primary driver of these watershed impairments. Community-driven forest stewardship offers an alternative approach to forest management that can help restore watershed health while simultaneously producing high-quality wood products and supporting local jobs in the woods. Stakeholder groups have joined Whatcom County and the Nooksack Tribe to develop a community forest on Stewart Mountain, just east of Bellingham; however, it remains uncertain how the forest should be managed and which entity should eventually own the land. This graduate research project includes an inventory of all community forests throughout the Pacific Northwest and an examination of their approaches to governance, ownership, and forest management. Three case studies were selected based on their unique approach to community forestry, and each was studied in greater detail through an extensive review of background documents and in-depth interviews with key partners involved with the projects. This research informed a series of recommendations regarding which ownership and governance models are most conducive to the proposed Stewart Mountain Community Forest (SMCF). This graduate research project consists of two parts—one focused on community forestry in the Pacific Northwest and the other focused on tribal water rights and the water rights adjudication process that has been initiated in the Nooksack watershed. The Nooksack adjudication has the potential to spur collaborative and innovative solutions—such as community forestry—that produce meaningful conservation gains for fish and greater water certainty for farmers in the years ahead. As I argue in both papers, if successfully implemented, community-driven forest stewardship in the Mt. Baker Foothills holds great potential to address many of the Nooksack basin’s water challenges, while also bolstering the resilience of the watershed to future climate impacts