Collected and ready-for-sale huckleberries fill plastic containers at a roadside camp on U.S. Highway 12 in 2014.
The Pinchot Partners and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest are hosting an open house Wednesday, May 24, to talk about important huckleberry areas in this area.
The open house will be 6-8 p.m. at the Packwood Fire Hall.
The event will feature several stations staffed by Pinchot Partners and the U.S. Forest Service to share information about huckleberry restoration and upcoming possibilities to improve huckleberry fields forestwide.
Those in attendance will learn about huckleberry areas in the forest and how the interested public can get involved with huckleberry restoration efforts. Information will also be available about huckleberry picking in the forest. Refreshments will be served.
The Pinchot Partners and the Forest Service have worked together for the past seven years to improve huckleberry habitat. Harvesting trees commercially to “daylight” the huckleberry bushes, hand removal of competing vegetation, and conducting prescribed burning are all methods that can improve huckleberry production.
The Pinchot Partners was recently awarded two grants from the Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation to develop a forestwide strategy for restoring huckleberry habitat in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
Funding was also received from Pacific Mountain Workforce Development Council to support public outreach. Members of the Pinchot Partners will be at the open house to explain more about these grants and how the public can be involved in the restoration effort.
