The Oregon Department of Forestry’s Federal Forest Restoration Program is awarding $3 million in planning assistance funding and separate grants of nearly $264,000 to forest collaboratives, including two in the Mid-Columbia area. The Mt. Hood National Forest will receive $500,000 for work in The Dalles Watershed during the 2025-27 biennium. The project is a landscape-scale restoration effort identified as a high priority for wildfire risk reduction in Oregon’s 20-year Landscape Resilience Strategy and the Mt. Hood area all-lands Strategic Action Plan. The ODF says It is responsive to local partnership priorities identified through the Wasco County all-lands group, Hood River All-Lands Partnership, the City of The Dalles, and the Hood River and Wasco County Forest Collaboratives. Wasco Soil and Water Conservation District is receiving a $62,190 Forest Collaborative grant for the Mt. Hood East Zone Forest Collaborative Project supporting collaborative engagement around the South Wasco Ecosystem Restoration effort.