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The Nature Conservancy and Tongass National Forest officials have signed a five-year memorandum to collaborate on projects such as restoring streams damaged by logging roads and thinning second-growth trees.

"We have a long-standing relationship," said Dennis Neill, Tongass National Forest spokesman. The Nature Conservancy has worked with Alaska national forests on prescribed burns and land purchases.

Though The Nature Conservancy is better known for its land deals, some of which have attracted controversy elsewhere in the United States, the group also employs scientists who conduct ecological surveys and wildlife habitat restoration projects.

Gaining access to some of the scientific and technical expertise developed by The Nature Conservancy will be the partnership's biggest benefit to the Tongass, Neill said.

"I think we are in an important time in the Tongass," said Rob Bosworth, Southeast Alaska coordinator for The Nature Conservancy.

The Tongass has about 600,000 acres of second-growth timber that could be thinned and serve as a resource for a small-scale timber industry, according to the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station.

"Thinning can be done in such a way that it improves habitat," Bosworth explained. "Within the same stand of timber, you can have wildlife and economic benefits."

Most of the second-growth trees approaching timber size are on Prince of Wales, Kuiu and Hecata islands, he said.

But there are a few locations in northern Southeast Alaska where The Nature Conservancy is interested in working on restoration projects.

On Chichagof Island, for example, "there are some issues with culverts that need to be replaced because they interfere with fish habitat," Bosworth said.

The Nature Conservancy recently agreed to provide $30,000 toward a $180,000 project to restore Sal Creek, a salmon and steelhead creek on Prince of Wales Island damaged by an old logging road. The road has six culverts that block fish passage.