MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. – The Department of Natural Resources launched a new pilot in its Post Fire Recovery Program which uses crews staffed by incarcerated individuals to assist landowners in restoring their property after the Oregon and Gray road fires.
More than 250 people have benefited from the program including Janiece Dallmann, who didn’t know where to go for help after the fire.
“It’s just so overwhelming to know what to do and where to get help,” Dallmann said.
DNR stepped in, using individuals from Airway Heights Correctional Center to plant saplings on properties.
“These crews plant a lot of trees. This is the first time that we are experimenting with this trial program to help out private landowners with these crews,” Steve Harris, Natural Resource Manager for the DNR, said.
The area in which the workers are planting is familiar to them, as all 10 men on the crew were in Medical Lake last summer helping fight the fires.
“Our crew members here did work on the fires, and provided that opportunity to help landowners there. And also helping after the fire, giving back to the communities,” Harris said.
Now this crew is back, planting 400 trees, helping to restore the land to what it was, something that is valuable to Dallmann.
“The land is important to me,” Dallmann said.
