South Santiam Community Forest Corridor members formalize land deal

SWEET HOME Speaking in Chinuk wawa, the native language of the Grand Ronde tribe, Michael Karnosh said Monday afternoon that his heart was very happy to be standing here today.

Karnosh was one of several dozen stakeholders who formalized their commitment to the South Santiam Community Forest Corridor concept by signing a declaration of cooperation at the Jim Riggs Community Center.

The Grand Ronde, Siletz and Warm Springs tribes have all participated in and support the process.

Other participants have included representatives of state and federal agencies, universities, the city of Sweet Home and private landowners, who have spent the last two years developing a long-term vision for the corridor of mixed ownership lands between Sweet Home and Cascadia.

Thomas Maness, dean of the Oregon State University school of forestry emceed the event and was a co-convener along with Cynthia Solie of the project supported by Gov. Kitzhabers Oregon Solutions program.

This is the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people, Maness said. Im proud to be a part of it.

Maness said he sees three keys to success: effective leadership; courage to push forward; and persistence to overcome inevitable resistance from others.

The working group developed 12 key goals.

Those goals include:

Increasing the physical connection between Sweet Home and the Willamette National Forest via the South Santiam corridor.

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South Santiam Community Forest Corridor members formalize land deal