In 2013, the U.S. Forest Service was looking for someone to reduce wildfire risk and rehabilitate a stand of overgrown trees on the Colville National Forest in northeastern Washington.
Colville-based Vaagen Brothers Lumber submitted the one and only proposal to take on the ‘A to Z’ project. It’s called A to Z because what the company accepted responsibility for was everything – from start to finish. That includes a lengthy and federally required environmental analysis, public comment and the actual work.
“This is a forest service stewardship contract that was paid for using private dollars,” Kurtis Vaagen said. He’s the company’s Vice President of Operations.
“The idea [is] that the Forest Service didn’t have enough man power or money to put forth the effort and do this large scale of a project,” he said.