Meetings are scheduled through October to enable the public to learn and comment about the joint effort between the Sweet Home Ranger District, Cascade Timber Consulting and the Santiam Watershed Council to develop a plan for some 10,000 acres of public and privately owned forest in the Cool Soda area.
The cooperative effort seeks to lower stream temperature and improve big game habitat, while creating more family wage jobs in the community. The effort is seen as a possible precursor to other such projects in the area, if it is successful.
The next meetings will be on Thursday, June 14, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Sweet home Ranger District and from 7 to 9 p.m. at Sweet Home Police Department. The meetings will include an overview of the planning area and provide participants with a chance to discuss the key benefits they associate with it.
Topics will be the existing conditions in the area, what the key benefits are and identifying problems associated with those benefits, and what’s important for the area.
More meetings are scheduled, on Aug. 7 and Aug. 21, at the same times and locations, for further discuss, followed by a final event at Sankey Park on Oct. 20.
Two meetings are being held each day to make it easier for interested individuals to attend.
For more information, contact the Sweet
Home District Office at (541) 367-5168 or e-mail Anita Leach at [email protected].