First Community Forest & Fiber Fusion Northwest

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Over 50 thousand acres of timber and grazing land in the Teanaway region north of Cle Elum has been purchased by the state in order to preserve the land from potential development. The $100 million purchase has the distinction of being the state's first community forest, and Peter Goldmark, Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands, says as part of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan the purchase will lead toward more irrigation water for farmers and ranchers in the basin.

The third annual Fiber Fusion Northwest will take place at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe October 19 - 20th. Fiber Fusion Volunteer Coordinator Lisa Lewis says that the number of classes, workshops and demonstrations for the event has expanded this year.

LEWIS: We have over twenty classes offered in spinning, felting classes, classes on how to process your fiber - when you take it directly from the animal and then what to do with it from there as far as cleaning it and then carding it. Carding is kind of like combing the fiber to get it ready to be spun. We try to offer quite a variety for various arts that people might be interested in.

Lewis says there will be a special evening seminar.

LEWIS: We have this additional evening class on fiber blending. For instance, sometimes you don't want your yarn to just be 100% alpaca, maybe you want to blend it with some wool or silk or whatever you might want to blend it with to get different effects.

Also included at the event will be an alpaca fleece judging show, wool and mohair fleece judging, a fiber arts contest, and a live fiber animal display. For more information on the Fiber Fusion Northwest event visit fiberfusion.net.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.