This photo taken in 2013 shows Miguel, 6, cleaning huckleberries at his family’s camp near Strawberry Mountain in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
Editor's Note: A Dec. 8 meeting in Packwood about huckleberry restoration efforts has been canceled due to weather concerns. The Pinchot Partners board hopes to reschedule the event sometime in January or February and will be sending out an announcement when a date is finalized.
Pinchot Partners has been using grant funds from the Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation to coordinate with the U.S. Forest Service and local logging companies to create a better environment for huckleberries some 25 miles south of Randle.
For many people in the Pacific Northwest, finding and harvesting huckleberries is an annual tradition as they navigate their way to a favorite patch, keep an eye out for bears and fill buckets with the elusive wild berries.
The Gifford Pinchot National Forest is a popular destination for pickers, and the Pinchot Partners group is hoping to boost the number of berries available over coming years through a collaboration with the Forest Service.
Jamie Tolfree, the collaborative coordinator for the organization, said they realized there is a need to restore berry patches but have not seen much movement on the issue. So, they set out to restore 774 acres of forest land some 25 miles south of Randle near Pole Patch.
“We’re basically improving huckleberry habitat,” Tolfree said.
In the past, Native American tribes had conducted burns to keep the patches open by eliminating overhead growth from trees that blocked the sun, as well as cleared out vegetation that could choke the plants.
But those burns haven’t happened recently, and Tolfree said the huckleberries have been suffering from it.
“For various reasons, they have become more and more diminished,” she said.
So after securing two grants totaling $55,000 from the Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation, the group approached the Forest Service with a plan.
Pinchot Partners would work to identify huckleberry patches using geographic data, and when they were found, the Forest Service would help clear the patches along with local logging companies.
In the most recent restoration, two local companies cleared the 774 acres and removed around 6 million board-feet of timber.
Much of the restoration is done by commercial logging, with some trees removed by hand when the area would be negatively impacted by large equipment. These help “daylight” the berries, which results in healthier plants and more berries, Tolfree said.
The Cowlitz Tribe is also involved in the restoration.
Ultimately, Tolfree said, the goal is to set up the restoration programs to become self-sustaining. Pinchot Partners is planning open house in Packwood to explain to the community what they’re doing, as well as solicit ideas about the future of the program.
“The idea is just to share our information with the community,” Tolfree said. “We think it’s a big deal.”
In particular, they’re also looking for leads on other huckleberry patches to restore.
