SEQUIM — A collaborative group with interests in the Upper Dungeness watershed’s habitat restoration, road and trail access, and recreational uses will consider next week putting its mark on a final list of project recommendations to Olympic National Forest officials.

The group meets at 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 23, in the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe’s Red Cedar Hall at the tribal center on Old Blyn Highway in Blyn.

“It really should be the end of the workshops,” said Susan Piper, wildlife, botany and invasive-plant program manager for Olympic National Forest.

“This meeting is for the collaborative group to review our proposed rankings [of importance],” Piper said.

“We have a list of projects that were approved by the collaborative group in October,” she said.

“We have to go forward with priorities for implementation.”

Public comment, which the U.S. Forest Service has stressed in a new approach to setting Olympic National Forest improvement priorities, ended in February.

No new projects

“We’re not accepting new projects,” Piper said, and the list of projects, which includes everything from road decommissioning and trail improvements to fish and wildlife habitat restoration, is now being locked in.

There are more than 80 projects, including recreation and habitat restoration, in the Dungeness Watershed on National Forest land that were reviewed and approved by the Dungeness Watershed Action Plan collaborative group at the October 2011 workshop, and later presented at a public meeting in February in Sequim.

The spreadsheet of these projects, along with accompanying maps, are posted on the Olympic National Forest website at http://tinyurl.com/7b5t5ch.

The Forest Service will update the spreadsheet today to show project implementation priority recommendations by resource area and type and potential funding sources for each project as requested by the collaborative group.

For example, under the aquatic section, there are six categories that are ranked in order of priority (aquatic organism passage/large woody debris placement, road closure/storage, road decommission, road upgrade, unclassified road obliteration and riparian rehabilitation).

Those who cannot attend next Wednesday’s workshop can contact Piper by email prior to the meeting, and she will forward the information to the group then.

Public comments

Comments on the action plan can be sent to Piper at spiper@fs.fed.us and Mike Anderson, Dungeness Watershed Action Plan collaborative group coordinator, at manderson@twsnw.org.

Piper asks that those attending RSVP her by email no later than Monday to coordinate with the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe.

The Upper Dungeness watershed encompasses more than 129,000 acres.

Olympic National Forest and other partners have recognized the river drainage as a priority watershed for restoration because of its natural resource values, impacted condition and current recreational uses.

For more information about the Dungeness Watershed Action Plan, visit http://tinyurl.com/837dvxe.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2390 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.