Landscape Stewardship Certificates of Appreciation - 2017

Pictured are: Cindy Fritz - BLM Emergency Stabilization & Rehabilitation, Peter Torma - BLM Soda Fire Project Manager, Brooke Jacobson - Idaho Department of Agriculture, Brandon Miller - US Fish & Wildlife Service, Michael Young - Idaho Fish & Game, Joshua Uriarte - Governor's Office of Species Conservation, Jason Pyron - US Fish & Wildlife Service, Anna Steele - PLF Idaho Rep, John Fend - PLF Director at Large, Michelle Ryerson - BLM Owyhee Field Manager, Lance Okeson - BLM Fuels Program Coordinator, Aimee Betts - BLM Associate Boise District Manager, and Lara Douglas - BLM Boise District Manager.

The Public Lands Foundation presents the Soda Fire Partners with its 2017 Landscape Stewardship Certificate of Appreciation and this Citation.  The Foundation grants this recognition to honor private citizens and organizations that work to advance and sustain community-based stewardship on landscapes that include, in whole or in part, public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

The Soda Fire Partners, which was nominated by the BLM Idaho State Office, is a coalition of Federal, state, and local agencies and private land owners who have developed and implemented stabilization, rehabilitation, and fuels projects across the landscape of southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon. The coalition formed following the Soda Fire in 2015, which burned 280,000 acres and created significant economic, social, and natural resource impacts in the Great Basin.

The Partners seek a shared vision of a resistant and resilient landscape which has a mixture of sagebrush, perennial grasses, and forbs that can adjust to normal disturbance from fire, drought, livestock grazing, and other management practices without continued vegetation treatments or a conversion of annual grasslands. The team works together to respond to landscape-scale issues that affect multiple jurisdictions. It conducts field trips, public meetings, and stakeholder discussions to ensure projects address a range of issues and opportunities. The breadth of issues addressed and the commitment of the partners have helped to build support for important treatments that are needed to restore the landscape to resistance and resilience after a fire.

The private land owners and livestock operators, the U. S. Geological Survey, the DOI Joint Fire Science Project, the Idaho Department of Lands, Boise State University, the University of Idaho, Oregon State University, the USDA Agricultural Research Service, and others are all working with the BLM in this significant endeavor.

The Public Lands Foundation is pleased to present the Soda Fire Partners with its 2017 Landscape Stewardship Certification of Appreciation and this Citation for invaluable contributions to the stewardship of America’s public landscapes.

 

Jesse J. Juen
September 12, 2017