2009: Fire to Ice

2009 was a busy, productive year.

A forest fire near our property reminded us that we need to keep working until we finish our fire stewardship work.

In terms of timber, we thinned some stands, doing all of the work ourselves. A new acquisition -- the logging winch -- made a big difference. We had a dozen dump truck loads of slash removed (instead of burning it in place) and it will end up as mulch for sale from Chelan County.

We finally received formal certification from ATFS as a Sustainable Forest. We even got a steel sign to post on the property.


As for the home, we're two steps closer to construction. We got our logs milled! They're stacked neatly in a storage yard, under a huge tarp. The 30 centimeter (7.25") square "cants" will form the walls, rafters and posts of our home.

And our septic system installation turned out to be quite a project, not to mention more expensive than we had planned. But without an approved septic, we wouldn't be able to get a building permit for the house. Now we have plans, cants, a building platform, driveways, water, septic, and phone. The next steps are a foundation and, alas, grid power.

On the financial front, we were approved for funding through the USDA's EQIP program. It adds up to about $1,000 per acre over 4 years, for various fire and timber health practices we need to do. Our current DNR FLEP matching grant expires soon.

With the budget issues in WA, it's no surprise I got practically no response to my proposed program to help small forest owners. Maybe next year.

Now the property is under a foot of snow (more coming soon). The access road is closed to wheeled vehicles until April, and everything is frozen solid. We can travel that last mile by snowmobile or snowshoes, and we're planning to do that on New Year's weekend, weather permitting. But no logging until spring.

Study Quantifies the Economic Impact of Private Working Forests in the U.S.

http://www.forest2market.com/f2m/us/f2m1/pressroom/releases/NAFO

"On average, [privately-owned forests] generate $277,000 in state GDP per 1,000 acres, while public forests generate just $41,000.

"The study also concludes that every 1,000 acres of private, working forest creates on average 8 jobs, $270,000 in annual payroll, $9,850 in annual state taxes (income and severance taxes only) and $733,000 in annual sales."

Fall Colors in North Central Washington

This time of year is magical. The berry bushes and slide alder on Stevens Pass, 2000 feet higher than our property, are bright red and orange. The big-leaf maples on our place range from green to full-on gold. Aspens haven't turned, but there is that promise in their color when the sun hits them just right in the breeze. The winding road to our property is lined (and sometimes covered) with fallen colors.

Big-leaf maple by our driveway.

Brush across US2 from Yodelin on Stevens Pass WA.

Tripp Canyon Fire, Cashmere WA

Could this be it? We wonder each time a fire breaks out near our property. This fire is within 3 miles of our property, and upwind. The last two have been even closer.

We're not ready -- we won't be, for another 3 or 4 years of thinning and pruning. We could lose everything, even after all of our work to make our property less susceptible to a devastating crown fire.

Tripp Canyon fire about 1/2 hour after it started today.

The Tripp Canyon fire began at about 11 a.m. today (10/11/09, see updates below) when a debris-pile burn at a home got out of control. I drove out US Highway 2 at about 11:30 to see what the smoke was about. It was a thick brown column of smoke typical of a hot forest fire, but it looked very small. Fire trucks passed, headed that way. The heliport in Cashmere was empty of their large, fire-fighting choppers.

I've wondered, lately, what goes into setting the Industrial Fire Precaution Level. For the past month the IFPL has been I, its lowest danger level. Any type of logging activity is permitted, and there is no burn ban. But the ground is dry, dry, dry. There has been precious little rain. Dry leaves are falling, and days are increasingly windy. This is when man-made fires get away from people.

Tripp Canyon fire location on Sky Meadows Road near Cashmere WA. (Google Maps)

By 2:00 the smoke had turned white, and looked about the same size, so I breathed a sigh of relief assuming it was under control. Then a friend called my mobile at 5:30 to say the neighboring Brisky Canyon was under an evacuation advisory. Smoke hung over Blewett Pass at sunset, and the air smelled of wood smoke.

As of 7:45 pm, it reportedly was still actively burning in brush and timber. About 50 firefighters were working the fire this afternoon. Three helicopters dropped water on the blaze.

The rocky, dry grass and brushlands around Cashmere quickly transition to dense forests of fir and pine as you go west -- the direction of the wind on Sunday. ([more photos] Wenatchee World photo by Kathryn Stevens.)

The Sheriff's Office told reporters the cause of this fire (a burning debris pile) is being investigated by DNR officials -- "but the fire appears to have been legal since the county-wide, open-burning ban was lifted earlier this month."

I must have burned a hundred large piles of debris just in the past 7 years, and I would not dare light a pile until there's snow on the ground. "Fuels and dryness are a huge indication that we’re going to have fire season until we get some snow," a Sheriff's Office spokesperson cautioned last Monday, less than a week before this fire.

Why can't people wait to burn their leaves and debris after the fall rains drench everything? It's only a week or two away. Folks here complain about burn bans. Today is evidence that, in the absence of rules and fines, a few people will not exercise common sense.

Fire status

SUNDAY -- The local newspaper says the fire is burning on state Department of Natural Resources land. Firefighters from Cashmere, Dryden, Monitor, Peshastin, Entiat and the Department of Natural Resources responded to the fire. The Chelan County Sheriff's office says about 135 firefighters from multiple agencies will be assigned to the fire starting early Monday, and the three helicopters will be back dropping water. DNR was not quoted in the update. A local radio report said the fire was at 100 acres and still uncontained at the end of the day.

MONDAY  -- Spread from 300 acres this morning to 400 acres this evening. Evacuation advisories have not changed for 30+ families; no one has been evacuated, and roads are open. DNR blog post offers limited info. Local news says crews are hoping that snow and rain forecast for this evening and Tuesday will help contain the fire. On the other hand, if winds shift, the fire could rush toward homes -- including ours.

TUESDAY -- 450 acres/10% contained this morning with "minimal fire activity." Calm winds and a cool night helped, but firefighters still haven't got the fire under control. Local news reports said officials were hoping snow would. Chance of light snow was in the forecast for this morning, but didn't materialize. By mid-day the fire grew to 525 acres/60% contained. This evening, officials assured residents that the evacuation advisory will be downgraded by dawn tomorrow if mop-up progresses at its current pace.

WEDNESDAY -- Snow. The fire is no longer a threat, firefighters are going home, and the fire starter has been acquitted. The fire charred 525 acres, endangered 28 families' homes, cost thousands in helicopter time, and brought in 180 firefighters from all over the state. The Sheriff's Office has acted swiftly to exonerate the individual whose carelessness started the fire: “It looks like the homeowner did everything right.”

Well, maybe not everything.

ATFS Certified Sustainable Forest

We received the certificate today for our certified sustainble forest. The American Tree Farm System certification is the central Washington companion to FSC (popular in western WA).

The forest has been managed according to ATFS standards for the past 8 years, and we got our "Sustainble Forest" sign a few years ago. It was not until a couple of years ago that we learned how easily we could attain certification for our wood products. The process took a while, since those who needed to sign the paperwork had moved on to other jobs. But the paperwork evenually went through, and we got a certificate and letter in today's mail.

We'll receive an ATFS sign, intended to accompany the Sustainable Forest sign, in a few weeks.

When you buy wood or paper with a "FSC" or "ATFS" symbol, it means the wood that it came from was farmed without undue harm to the Earth it came from. ATFS certifies that any wood products that are obtained from our land are grown and harvested in a sustainable way. We would give a copy of our certificate to a sawmill or pulp mill, and they would pass along the certificates with the lumber or pulp goods they produce.

Yarding & Skidding Logs, High-Volume Style

We're making good progress getting logs out of the woods this month. Our neighbor Curt came over to help with skidding, which means either setting choker or running the winch while I hook logs. He loaded his small trailer to capacity with firewood logs a couple of times. He heats with wood, and isn't particular about the species, diameter, or straightness of the logs he uses. Unfortunately the trailer doesn't hold very much weight.

Shaun Brender also came by with his friend Zak to check out the "new" logging winch. Before we got the winch, Shaun had offered to dozer-skid logs for a small fee plus the wood. Shaun ran down our steepest slope with the choker and line about a dozen times within an hour and a half. We just kept winching until we had 15 logs piled up at the roadside.

Collecting so many logs in one location actually complicated the process of skidding them to the landing. We would have preferred to skid tree-length logs and buck them at the landing. But the roadside pile made it necessary to buck logs in place and skid shorter logs to the deck. Luckily, the skid distance was short.

One tough log
Curt and I tackled one more log before dark, a big fir that fell downhill and straddled the bottom of the draw. Its butt was stuck into the hillside and lodged below its own stump. It took us about 45 minutes, but we got the full-length log out.

We used a block on the log with stationary anchor points to double the winching power. Once we got the log moving uphill, we had to add another block. The photo shows the setup, which gives us 3X the 6,000 lb power of the winch. The log wouldn't budge without a block, and hardly moved with one block, but slid like butter with two blocks. That's the power of a block and tackle.

Winch and two snatch blocks on a log.

Close-up of the log end. Choker at left, winch cable at right.

Winch operator's perspective.

More about Block & Tackle:
- Good luck understanding the physics professor version at Wikipedia.
- "How Stuff Works" was once a great resource, but they've gotten desperate with the advertising.

The next day, Linda and I skidded another dozen logs in 2 hours. That includes skidding them a short distance to the landing, bucking and decking them. I hooked logs on the steep slope, and she ran the winch. Linda endured all of my previous experiments with winches and other methods of yarding logs. After watching a few logs effortlessly ascend the wall of the ravine toward her, she declared the new winch the best $2k we've spent.

Dwarf Mistletoe on Ponderosa Pine

Dwarf Mistletoe -- Arceuthobium -- is one of the parasites we deal with on our Ponderosa Pine stands. I found this specimen while pruning some young pines last July. Note how the limb is swollen and contorted under the mistletoe infection.

Dwarf mistletoe has seeds, stems, flowers, and roots like other plants, but it depends on its host for water and nutrients. All major conifer species are infected by a mistletoe species specific to that confier (Douglas fir dwarf mistletoe lives only on Douglas fir) although Larch dwarf mistletoe sometimes infects other trees.

This mistletoe is showy, but some are quite small. You're more likely to identify mistletoe by looking at the tree from a distance. The presence of "witches'’ brooms" (abnormal branch clumping) is a fairly certain sign of mistletoe. Mistletoe infects nearby trees, and can kill younger understory trees. A large ponderosa pine mistletoe plant can spread its seeds up to 50 feet.

Unfortunately, thinning can exascerbate mistletoe growth. Shady, overcrowded stands deprive mistletoe of light and water. Cutting trees helps the remaining trees in many ways, but it also leads to a mistletoe growth spurt. Mistletoe might not kill the trees, but it weakens them and makes them susceptible to other parasites, such as bark beatles.

Even more unfortunate is the prognosis for an infected stand like ours. We're not cutting enough trees to require replanting; if we planted, the understory trees would likely become infected and not survive. That means, someday, when the pine here begins to die of old age, this stand will need to have all remaining mature pine removed and be replanted.

Here are some good resources about mistletoe for central Washington tree farmers:

Forest Health Notes: Dwarf Mistletoe - Washington State University Cooperative Extension - with advice on managing an infected stand.

Dwarf Mistletoe Biology and Management in Southeast Region - Washington Department of Natural Resources - 5 pages of detail plus 3 pages of photographs very useful in identifying mistletoe.
 
To locate more information about mistletoe, google "mistletoe" together with your particular tree species name.

Volunteer weekend on the logging operation

Friends came out to help with work this weekend. It's invaluable to have extra hands on jobs like skidding and decking logs. Even with just one other person, the work seems to flow faster and get done more smoothly than when Linda and I are working as a pair.

John skids logs into the landing area, while Mara waits to pile slash.

John and I worked on hooking, winching and skidding logs out of the woods to the landing. Linda and Mara processed incoming logs -- Linda limbed and bucked; Mara measured for the buck, and then piled the slash. Then I decked the logs and headed back to the woods, where John had the next turn of logs ready to winch out.

John unhooks his logs from the tractor.

Thanks for your help! You're welcome back any time.

Farmi logging winch blade

We bought a used Farmi logging winch blade this month. It's hard to describe, so I shot some quick video this weekend.

This winch attaches to the 3-point hitch on a small tractor. It's powered by the PTO driveline from the tractor. The housing has a winch inside, a blade on the bottom, and a block on the top that acts like an arch. The winch has a 160' wire rope (3/8" galvanized cable) with a grab hook.
You pull a rope to engage the winch, and stand back. It develops quite a bit of pull from the PTO of a 34 horse tractor. All of the winching in this video is done with the tractor at idle. Running the tractor faster will run the winch faster, but there's a limit. I've already had the experience of seeing the front tires of the tractor rise off the ground, and it would be easy to tip the tractor if you're not diligent.

I included a good example of the tractor and winch combination in action. When our roads get churned up it can be so loose that it's difficult to skid a turn of logs up steep sections. Instead of churning the road more, I positioned the tractor at the top of a steep bank, where I could winch the logs out of a pile and along the road, up the bank, to the tractor.
After I pull a couple more logs up, I hook the chain chokers into notches in the winch blade, lift the blade to raise the butts off the ground, and start skidding the logs toward the landing.

I position the logs in front of the decks, unhook the choker chains, buck the logs to length, and I'm ready to deck them using the log forks on the tractor's loader bucket.

I included another example, this time using a snatch block. We had some logs that were digging their butts into the road bank instead of riding up onto the road. When the load hangs up, the blade digs in, the logs tear up the road bank, and the winch eventually stops. We set up a snatch block to extract these logs without damaging the road.

We've tried a few other methods of yarding logs out of the woods and to the tractor for skidding, and this one holds the most promise. I'm looking forward to posting more of my success stories and pictures of the winch next season.

Logging winch blade purchase

Today we bought a new tool for our small-scale logging operation: a Farmi logger winch blade for our tractor.

The blade is like a small dozer blade, but without the tilt and angle controls. Inside the blade is a PTO winch with 165 feet of wire rope.

The whole thing mounts on the three-point hitch of our Kubota tractor. The tractor's PTO drives the winch to pull logs to the tractor.

The blade sits on the ground during winching, to keep the tension from pulling the tractor backward.

Once the log is yarded up to the blade, we raise the 3-point to lift butt of the the log(s) off the ground, so they'll skid without tearing up the ground or roads. The blade keeps the log from banging against the back of the tractor.

We bought it used from two brothers in Kent. We found them on Craigslist by posting a "wanted" ad.

Logging PTO winch design failures

I made a logging winch out of a Ramsey 9000 lb drum PTO winch and it didn't work out. That winch was not up to the punishment of tractor logging. I tore up 2, and spent nearly $1,000 and countless hours welding, before giving up on this idea.

Problem #1 -- The winch 0.75" drive shaft is too light for this kind of work. They break off in the PTO driveline yoke. The drive shaft is cast into the worm gear, so it's impossible to replace without replacing the worm gear, $275, a couple hours of labor, and a week of down time.
Problem #2 -- This is a slow winch with no power-out. It pulls at less than 1 fps at 1800 RPM. That's mighty slow when rewinding 100' of empty cable. I have a live PTO but no reverse, so I was always slacking off the cable by backing the tractor, just to get the winch clutch out. Sometimes the winching had pulled the tractor back against a tree or stump, trapping it there. Tractor skidding is slow enough already.
Problem #3 -- The frame I made doesn't work for lifting and skidding logs. Using the winch hook for skidding puts too much strain on the winch frame and toplink. It affects steering and traction because it throws the log's weight back on the tractor like a hoist arch would. Dropping the winch to skid logs is too much repeated hassle. Plowing logs through the dirt is land-damaging and slow.

What I would do differently--
1. Use a winch that's meant for heavier work. Recovering a 1,000 lb wheeled Jeep is not the same as yarding a 3,000 lb log uphill through slash and stumps. Make sure it's bidirectional or has a manual driveline clutch. Get a 2-speed if possible.
2. Redesign the frame. This is tricky because you need room for the PTO driveline. The log's weight needs to be on the lift bar, not aft of it. There needs to be a low arch that keeps the load close to the tractor.
3. Build it so there's some protection for the winch and tractor against the log slamming it. Logs like to lunge forward, or get into the rear tires, when skidding downhill.

One nice thing about a winch is having a variable-length cable always with you, even if you use blocks and the drive-away method instead of winching.

The winch model I used is like towtruck-wreckers use, although mine were salvaged out of 1960's military Jeeps. $400 for both winches. Each had something broken, but together they made a working winch and left me parts to repair it. I got them at a 4X4 salvage yard.
This winch has a 3/4" round drive shaft with a keyway. I ordered a special yoke for the PTO driveline, and had a machine shop put the keyway into it. $260 for the driveline, $15 for the keyway. (Expect this to cost more -- machinists usually have a shop minimum of $50.)
I built a 3-point frame using flat and angle steel. The first one wasn't heavy enough and collapsed under the stress. The second one, using angle iron from a truck frame, would withstand a cannon attack. The frame design wraps around the winch, so the winch bolts in from front and back, like it did in the Jeep bumper. This is mandatory for this type of winch. A pair of parallel vertical posts go up to the top link. The main cross member is 3/8" steel angle with ends welded in, and holes in the ends for the pins. The rear cross member has the roller fairlead mounted below it.
Note: I tried hooking up my newer Ramsey 12V 9000 lb winch off my Jeep onto the tractor. I used a 2" receiver-to-3 point hitch adapter ($60) and modified a pair of jumper cables ($35). I burned up one winch motor (&#%!!) and got very frustrated with the slow speed before abandoning that idea within a few days.
Our tractor is a 2008 Kubota L3400, 34HP, 4wd.
Now I'm looking for a "logging blade."

Program Spec to Help Small Forest Owners

This is the program I'd like to see... what could be your role in helping to make it happen?

Small family forests constitute a large portion of forest lands in Washington state. Most of those forests are overstocked and unmanaged, which creates a fire hazard to the homes and businesses on and near those properties. Logging on small wooded properties is barely economically viable, if at all, and lately is a money-losing operation. Profitable commercial thinning is often misaligned with the land owner's goals.

The resources are there to help families manage their forests, but it's not easy to find and coordinate those resources.

This "program" helps us as owners of small forests (1 to 160 acres) to make our land healthy and fire safe. The program brings together existing resources for owners, straightening and shortening the path to a well-managed forest.

Here's what the program would do, and the resources it would connect us with...

Realtors -- Tell us, as we look at forested parcels to buy, that there is a program available to help us get overgrown properties under control without giving up the beauty we seek. Hand us a flyer on the program, or point us to the web site. Suggest that we ask the bank about the program when we apply for a mortgage or construction loan. Follow up with us about it -- someday you'll be selling the neighboring properties.

Banks -- Make us aware of the program when we borrow to buy bare land or to build on it. Give us the option of adding a land-equity line of credit specifically for forest stewardship, at time of purchase. Find government programs that provide low-interest, interest-free, or guaranteed loans for ecology practices. Create affordable financing products to help us cover the portion of work for which we are not reimbursed by government/grant funding.

Insurance companies -- When you do a site visit and see thick trees, tell us about the program and the premiums we can save by doing it. Give us a break on our premiums when we have a stewardship plan and follow through with it under the program.

Government agencies -- Find assistance we qualify for, through existing grant and copay programs such as FLEP and EQIP. Counties can get our neighbors to join the program as a group, placing contiguous land into the program and reducing overhead for operations. NGOs are another potential source of funds and related programs for conservation.

University/community college forestry extensions -- Offer your students credit for a project in which they help the Forester, thus creating an upcoming pool of Foresters for the program, and reducing the cost to the each of us.

Landowners -- Those who have been through a process similar to the program (and eventually those who have completed the program) need a formal process to become supporters by speaking to neighborhood groups, hosting field trips, and taking calls when prospective participants have questions.

Media -- Inform us about the program and about managing our forests, especially the risk of losing our trees (and our homes) to fire. Consult with us and guide us through the steps of the program.

We need these resources:

Money --to defray the cost of managing at a financial loss. That includes help with tax treatment for grants and copays, as well as timber excise tax help.

Consulting foresters -- Locate a forester who knows our region and can (a) write a forest management/stewardship plan specific to our property; (b) perform sample plots and cruises as needed for timber practices; (c) manage any thinning and harvesting operations, including the permit process and taxes.

Biologists -- Put us in touch with someone who can advise us about attracting wildlife, protecting riparian, preventing tree disease and eliminating noxious weeds.

Logging operators -- Match our property with a logger who knows the program, is equipped to work on small properties, and is prepared to abide by our goals for the land and forest.

Landscapers -- Connect us with people who have crews and equipment to prune trees, pile slash, haul away or burn debris, and remove brush.

Are you with the program? Do you have ideas or useful contacts?

Let's start this program in a county and blueprint it for others to replicate. I'm in Chelan County and I'm ready to meet. Leave a comment.

7/29/09 Chris e-mailed:

"WOW, this is a large and serious undertaking, impressive. It’s the sort of thing that Kirk Hanson, with DNR’s SFLO Office, was on his way to accomplishing before he left. It is definitely needed and the toughest part, from my experience, is the maintenance and up-keep after a few years. The only comment I have is work closely with the small landowner groups such as Farm-Forestry, Cooperative Extension, NW Pine Assoc., and maybe SAF (to name a few). They may be able to help with information, updates and up-keep."

Spring work party

The weather in June is at its absolute best here this time of year. Everything is still very green. Temperatures are in the 60s when we get up in the morning, and reach the high 70s by mid afternoon. It's light by 5:00 AM and stays light until 9:30 PM. Blue skies and cool mountain breezes leave us nothing to complain about.

 

I felled 13 trees on Friday afternoon and another 30 on Saturday morning before our guests arrived. They're mostly 7-12" dbh pine, with a tendency to hang up in other trees as they fall. I had a 3-tree domino, a fun thing to watch from a safe distance.

 

Our good friends John and Mara came up this weekend to visit and work. They brought their tricked-out VW camper bus, the same one they use every year for the Burning Man festival.

 

We cleaned up about 1/2 acre where we've finished thinning and pruning. Now, that area is ready to recover. We gathered slash into burn piles, moved other piles into better locations for winter burning, dragged longer logs out of the area, and left 3 ground logs behind. The pine grass and brush will take over and it will be all green by this time next year. Other than having about 2/3 fewer trees, it will look as natural as before.

 

The work goes pretty fast with a 4-person crew. Nonetheless, it's easy to see how slash control alone could take 20 to 30 man-hours per acre.

 

We had a great dinner outside by the summer evening light -- we kept talking and drinking quite late. Suffice it to say, we had less appetite for hard work the next morning. We all had a leisurely breakfast and went for a walk around the property before our friends headed back to Seattle.

 

 

Portable sawmill work to begin next week

I'm very excited to say that the on-site milling of our building logs is scheduled to begin next week. It's supposed to take a week or maybe two.

 

We cut our 120 Douglas Fir house logs last summer, from our 20 acres. The logs are all about 10" d. at the small end, and run as long as 60 feet. They'll be milled into 7x7 inch "cants," which are basically square beams ranging from 10' to 25' long. Those will be stacked to dry and, in some later year (2012?), we'll build a house with them.

 

I italicize scheduled because this work is an imprecise business at best. We had to find a sawyer with the right equipment (which we did). The sawyer has to get his mill on site (it's here) and tuned up (almost done). The log truck needs to load the logs and park them beside the mill for easy transfer. And there needs to be someone, in addition to yours truly, who can support the sawyer by loading logs onto the mill and stacking cants after they're milled, using a front loader with log forks.

 

If I forget to post photos, someone remind me. This should be interesting!

 

 

'Tis the Season for Felling Ponderosa Pine

Now that the Summer Solstice has passed, we're comfortable cutting pine. We've been cutting fir so far this year, and there has been plenty of it in this year's target stands.

This is part of our continuing thinning from below to reduce fuels and improve forest health. We avoided cutting pine this season until now, because fresh pine slash is like catnip to those pesky little Ips pine bark beetles. In 1991 the western pine beetle was responsible for the death of 21,679 trees over 28,159 acres resulting in a loss of 1.267 million cubic feet of lumber -- and it's been getting worse ever since. Even so, it's tragic to see even one tree, a feature of my favorite view for years, suddenly turn brown. We've lost dozens of trees to beetles, often in clusters.

Advice varies as to when it's "safe" to create slash by felling pines. Starting dates range from June 1 to August 1, depending on whom you ask. We've often heard mid-June or late June, so we picked the Solstice and planned accordingly.

Now it looks like we'll be busy milling for a week or two, so the pine beetle will have until early July to pick someone else's trees.

Western Washington Forest Owners Field Day July 31-August 1, 2009

This is the largest such event of the year, aimed at 1) helping landowners understand fundamental management techniques and emerging issues, and 2) uniting family forest owners with goods and services (such as consulting foresters) that will help them successfully accomplish personal objects.

 

Official Field Day website http://snohomish.wsu.edu/forestry/2009FieldDay.htm 

 

Brochure http://snohomish.wsu.edu/forestry/documents/09WWFieldDayBrochure.pdf

 

Activity schedule http://snohomish.wsu.edu/forestry/documents/WWA_FD_2009_Event_Schedule.pdf

WA DNR Cuts Stewardship Foresters

Western WA stewardship foresters are due to lose their positions as of June 30, 2009. Not affecting us in central WA yet, but it certainly could... if forest owners don't speak up soon.

 

Washington Department of Natural Resources has decided to eliminate stewardship foresters west of the Cascades. They're being quiet about it, and many small forest owners are unaware of the impending cuts. State employees are forbidden to discuss some aspects of the decision publicly.

 

Stewardship foresters are the people who work with small timber landowners to manage stands sustainably and advise us on reducing fire hazards. They make site visits and approve forest stewardship plans. They co-teach the coached planning class, and the advanced stewardship class I'm taking now, in partnership with Washington University Extension.

 

The elimination of these positions is purportedly due to state budget cuts. The westside foresters being cut are the least numerous and most burdened -- there are more family forests on the west side than on the east, and fewer foresters to cover more counties.

 

If stewardship foresters are cut on the east side as well, thousands of families here will lose a major source of help. We've benefited from those services in our effort to eliminate fuels, reduce forest fire hazard, fight bugs and disease, and fund necessary activities that are uneconomical on a small property.

 

WA DNR should restore those westside foresters' posts, rather than lose the many years of experience and territory familiarity they possess. I hope DNR doesn't cut eastside stewardship foresters next. So I'm e-mailing the WA Land Commissioner and my state legislators. You should, too.

 

Find your legislator's name and contact info using your address

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/

 

Office of the Commissioner of Public Lands

1111 Washington St. SE

PO Box 47001

Olympia WA 98504-7001

cpl@dnr.wa.gov

360-902-1004

Fax 360-902-1775

 

The Washington Farm Forestry Association's lobbyists might also be able to help more if they hear from private forest owners. www.wafarmforestry.com

 

 

 

Eastern WA Cost share programs from DNR & USDA NRCS

Federal cost-share funds from the Washington Department of Natural Resources, USDA Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) may be available to help you pay for projects to improve the health of your forest.

Forest Stewardship Coached Planning Course, Fall City, coming Fall 2009

Some preliminary dates have been set for this course with more details to come.  This is a great multi-week course covering several forest and wildlife management topics that will culminate with you writing your own Stewardship Plan.  WSU Extension and Washington DNR present these programs statewide with the help of several other partners.  Detailed information about the Forest Stewardship Program is available at: http://ext.wsu.edu/forestry/stewardship.htm.  While you’re there, spend some time exploring the new WSU Forestry Extension site.

 

Small Forest Landowner Newsletter May 09

 

 

Driveway or truck road construction

A neighbor just built a new driveway about 100 feet to a spot where he plans to park a 25' camper trailer. The new road has very little grade and crosses two seasonal streams.

 

If you build a dirt road in central Washington, you'll quickly find that the combination of rainwater and clay can stop any vehicle.

 

It's best not to put off installing culverts. Get it done before mid September if you can. Once it starts raining, the heavy equipment work itself is almost as damaging as having your road wash out. Your first few springs you'll have a lot of silt. Get at least 12" culvert so you can get a shovel or hoe into it to clean it out. Near Wenatchee: United Pipe, 509-662-7128, or Tumwater Drilling, 509-548-5361.

 

Crushed rock is a very good idea. A 4" base course of "1 1/4 inch minus" rock will give you a good, solid road surface year-round. My neighbor might want to put a load of smaller "5/8 inch minus" under the camper trailer and in the area immediately around it, where he won't drive but will want to walk and have a patio area. A load gets you about 10 feet of one-lane roadway. Bergrund Construction in Peshastin has a small dump truck that can maneuver in tight spaces. He spreads the rock evenly, so you don't need to do any smoothing or grading. Dan Dietrich, 509-669-7908.

 

This driveway was simple in design, but difficult to plan and to construct due to the many constraints -- side slope, varied geology, overstocked trees, property lines and rights of way. If you want to know more about road design, the WA DNR or UW Extension/Forestry have handbooks that are cheap or free.

"Got Wildlife?" WSU Extension workshop

Free WSU workshop helps you learn how to attract furred and
feathered friends to your woodland property.

The presence of wildlife can be one of the highlights of owning forested property. But many factors can make your property less desirable to forest fauna. Learn what you can do to increase the diversity of your forest backyard.

Washington State University Snohomish County Extension is offering a free ‘Healthy Forests for Fish and Wildlife’ workshop for small woodland owners. The workshop will be held on Thursday June 4, 2009 from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m., at the Loyal Heights Community Club in the Bryant area just north of Arlington: 4305 269th Pl NE Arlington, WA 98223.

This class will teach forest landowners practical steps to attract more wildlife and biodiversity to their property. Participants will learn about different types of habitat, how to enhance streamside areas for salmon, grant and cost-share programs available to help landowners improve habitat on their property, and where to find assistance with forestry and wildlife issues, including free on-site consultations from a forester or wildlife biologist.

The workshop will feature speakers from Washington State University, WA Department of Natural Resources, WA Department of Fish and Wildlife, Snohomish Conservation District, and the Sno-Stilly Fisheries Enhancement Task Force.

There is no cost to attend this workshop, but space is limited and pre-registration will assure your spot. Register online at http://snohomish.wsu.edu/forestry/wildlifeworkshop.htm or by contacting Kevin Zobrist, WSU Area Extension Educator:

 

Kevin Zobrist – (425) 357-6017 (Work)                                                               

kzobrist@wsu.edu – (425) 299-6403 (Mobile)

 

Tractor Damage Slows Slash-Burning

Pushing a burn pile around with the Kubota front loader earlier this month, I got a long pine stick between two parts and saw hydraulic oil start spewing.

 

It bent a hydraulic rod, broke a cylinder cap and ruined a set of seals. Must be more careful with debris. Having the tractor out of commission now isn't good. The burn ban starts in 3 weeks, and we have a lot of fire-hazard debris to get rid of while the forest is still wet.

 

The seals were the least expensive part to replace, under $50. They're special rubber O-rings that you fit into their respective places. The steel cap was more like $150.

 

Two tractor mechanics advised against reinstalling a bent hydraulic rod because it would just damage the cylinder. A new rod would have been $400. Swiftwater Tractor directed me to a place that straightens them. The bend wasn't bad, and there was no polishing required on the mirror-like surface. Cost: $30 instead of $400. The place is Western Metals in Ellensburg. Valley Tractor called around for me to try to find someplace similar in Wenatchee, with no luck.

 

Shipping the rod to the shop, and driving out of my way to pick it up, was nothing compared to the hassle of fitting 2 of those little seals into the new cap. I tried several times, then boiled the seals to soften them (but it didn't), then finally found a way to fold it like a taco, then double it back over itself, then jam it into the cap with a rubberized pliers handle.

 

Back in business -- and not a drop.

 

April Showers, May Flowers

Photo: Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) in bloom, mid May.

This is the time of year that keeps us coming back to this place. The wildflowers are in their full glory, with every open meadow and hillside covered with gold blossoms.

The weather is beautiful, most of the time, but schizophrenic. Out of the past three weekends we've had blue skies and warm weather, moderate temps with overcast, and chilly with showers, in that order.

We managed to burn some slash piles while the duff is still quite wet. It's mostly boring, hot work, but it's so nice to be rid of large heaps of dry wood debris! I also managed to bend a hydraulic rod on the tractor, pushing a burn pile around. It's turning out to be quite an expensive mistake, and takes the loader out of commission for a few weeks.

I sharpened the chain on my larger saw, fueled up the two Stihls, and felled 12-14 trees in 2 weekends. One fell against its favor to land on the deck, right where I aimed it, so I haven't completely lost my touch.

Forest Stewardship: Timber Values

Advanced forest stewardship course, day 4: Timber Values

Tonight's class focused on values -- the value of timber, calculating the value of a future harvest, and looking at the big picture beyond cash flows.

 

Will Miller of Miller Shingle talked for over an hour about timber prices, types and mills. His charts were depressing -- timber prices are at dismal lows, and mill closures are disheartening. I learned some new terminology, so now I know the difference between J sort and K sort, between hook and sweep, and between a knot and a spike knot. I know how to pronounce Buse and Oeser without sounding like the tenderfoot I am. (Buse sounds like busey and Oeser rhymes with closure.)

 

Will handed out a spreadsheet of timber prices for the current month, organized by species and log size or type. All of his information was for west side timber, so he had no information about Ponderosas, nor for mills east of the Cascades.

 

Take-away: Don't harvest now, prices are too low, but the outlook for price recovery is gloomy.

 

The rest of the evening was on forest finance. The course's lead instructor (MBA in forest economics) talked us through various financial calculations. We started with the simple ones, like present value and future value. We worked through net present value (NPV), perpetual periodic series, and converting nominal figures to inflation-adjusted numbers. All of this led up to learning the Soil Expectation Value (also known as the Land Expectation Value).

 

SEV is NPV expressed as a perpetual periodic series. I never learned this one in business school. It takes into account the cost of the land, any existing timber at time of purchase, and all of the aspects included in a NPV calculation. SEV is specific to one situation and land use, i.e., forestry.

 

Take-aways:

Calculations like these are useful tools for comparing timber management options. Should I buy an available piece of forest land? Should I harvest it now or wait for the market to improve? How does that change if the existing timber is in decline? What species should I choose after harvest? What if excise tax rates change?

 

Calculations are not as useful for the non-market factors in timber management. What are my goals for land ownership? What value do we (or another organization) place on wildlife habitat? Aesthetics? Fire safety? When calculating the monetary output of a chunk of mud and mbf, It's important to keep the big picture in mind. If it were only mud and mbf, we wouldn't own ours; timber farming is a terrible business to be in now, strictly economically speaking.

 

Garbage in, garbage out. Assumptions are the key to any of these calculations. Some assumptions boil down to guesswork. The better the guess, the better the accuracy of the outcome. Many calcs are good only for comparisons; in that case, be sure you're comparing apples to apples. For example, try to use real numbers and real interest rates (not nominal, and certainly not a mix).

 

Note: Tonight's class follows two weeks (class days 2 and 3) of training on the Landscape Management System (LMS) software. LMS performs a wide variety of complex calculations and 3D visualizations on timber stands, and could be very useful to a part-time timber grower. The software is technically a kludge, one that crashed my PC twice and had to be removed each time. It can be downloaded from the WSU Extension. The class also took a field trip to practice taking inventory with sample plots.

 

 

Another blogger logger

Jen Pennington writes about becoming a sustainable forest owner on her blog, "Ecozome Journal."

Welcome to the club, Jen.

Burning land to stay ahead of wildfire threat

Where we removed trees from densely overstocked stands last summer, we now see spring grasses coming up as more light reaches the forest floor.

In some areas, though, the forest duff is so thick and compacted that the grass doesn't have a chance of penetrating it. The ground under the duff is moist and bare, but no light or seeds make it through.

This TV news story talks about prescribed burns (Rx fires). Northwest Management forester Brian Vrablick explains the process of burning to eliminate that thick carpet of fir needles and fine sticks.

It's scary to think about igniting that dry duff around fire-intolerant fir trees. The story doesn't talk about the prep work before the Rx fire, that of removing the flash fuels around the stems. If the ground fire is too hot it could kill some trees we selected to leave -- the biggest and healthiest of them all -- because the heat scorches the stems (trunks).

Totally natural fire ecology would eliminate the duff with fires every 10 years or so. Those same fires would eliminate the fir and leave an open stand of Ponderosa Pine.

We're not prepared to go that far (i.e., clearcut) to return to PP in 50 years. We have PP stands on half the property. And we're working hard to keep fire from doing any clearcutting for us.

Living with Forests in Wildfire Country - seminar 4/30/09

This program is taught by forest owners, so there will be ample information based on real life experiences. Sorry for the short notice. Phone included if you'd like to inquire about repeats.

On Thursday, April 30, 2009, at 7-9 PM, in Leavenworth WA, the Barn Beach Trust will present “Living with Forests in Wildfire Country,” a seminar to help people prepare for the approaching fire season. The seminar will take place in the Barn at Barn Beach Reserve, located at 347 Division Street.

With fire season coming, it’s a great time for forest landowners to learn what they can do to protect their property and give themselves peace of mind. Whether you are a forest land owner, or your home is located in the forest, or you just live in a community on the east side of the Cascades with forests nearby, it’s important to understand what it means to live with forests in wildfire country.

The seminar will be presented by Leavenworth area forest landowners Tom Davies and Ross Frank, both of whom have extensive forest land management experience and expertise.
Topics to be covered at the seminar include:
v Forest ecology
v Forest health
v The role of fire in forests
v How property owners can assess wildfire risks to their land and structures
v What property owners can do reduce these risks.

For more information, please contact Jeff Parsons, (509) 548-0181

Tom Davies and his wife, Cynthia Neely, own forested land near Leavenworth. Tom’s credentials include a Masters Degree in Forest Science and a Ph.D. in Biology, both from Yale University. He serves on the Leavenworth Neighbors Fire Education-Fuels Reduction steering committee and is actively working to restore his family’s 120-acre ponderosa pine forest. He is past-President of the Barn Beach Trust.

Ross Frank and his wife, Marianne, own Red-Tail Canyon Farm, a draft horse ranch and a registered tree farm. Ross is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources. He currently chairs the Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition and serves on the Board of Directors of the Barn Beach Trust. He is a past board member and chairperson of the Chelan County Conservation District.

NRCS EQIP forestry funding rates as of March 2009

Considering an Environmental Quality Incentive Program application for funding by USDA's NRCS, here's what NRCS offered.

Thinning $150/acre

Pruning $75/acre

Slash disposal (landowner's preferred method) $187.50/acre

Nesting structures (bird houses, bat boxes) $37.50 each

Wildlife habitat management (structures and plantings) $500 one-time payment

Pest management plan (a combination of documentation and field observations) $1,000 one-time payment

NRCS has well-defined standards for each practice available online. There are many other fundable practices for forest, land, fire and waterway care that I have not listed here.

Keywords: eqip equip sustainable stewardship

DNR FLEP cost share rates thru Sept 2009

Looking back at the 2008-09 Eastern Washington Forest Landowner Cost-Share Information and Application document, here's what DNR is paying on a cost-share basis.

 

(The dollar amounts represent the limits of their half, owners pay the rest)

 

Forest Stewardship Plan writing, $500 for 20-100 acres

 

Thinning $120 to $230/acre (higher rates apply for heavily overstocked stands)

 

Pruning $0.20 per foot pruned (100 trees per acre, 16' pruning, 10' bare stem, $120/acre)

 

Prescribed under-burn $150/acre

 

Slash disposal (piling, lop/scatter, shred) $350/acre

 

Here's the contact info to find out more or to apply:

 

 

Please contact the DNR Region Forest Stewardship Program Coordinator who serves the area where your land is located:

 

            For land in Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Lincoln, and Spokane counties:

·         Cliff Thresher, WA DNR, P.O. Box 190, 225 S. Silke Rd., Colville, WA  99114-0190. 

(509) 684-7474.  FAX: (509) 7484. cliff.thresher@dnr.wa.gov

 

 

For land in Chelan, Douglas, Kittitas, Yakima, Klickitat, Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield, Asotin,  Whitman, and eastern Skamania counties:

·         WA DNR, 713 E. Bowers Rd., Ellensburg, WA  98926-9341. (509) 925-8510.  FAX: (509) 925-8522.

 

Statewide Forest Stewardship Program Manager

·         Steve Gibbs, WA DNR, P.O. Box 47012, Olympia, WA 98504-7012.  (360) 902-1706.  FAX: (360) 902-1428.  steve.gibbs@dnr.wa.gov

 

 

Carbon trading for forest owners - Webinar

My family still owns 80 acres of our great-grandfather's homestead farm in east Texas. Last year we started the process of selling the carbon credits from that heavily wooded acreage.

 

Texas has been progressive in rolling out carbon programs that have been working in other states. (Yes, I used "Texas" and "progressive" in the same sentence.) Under the TX program we would receive payments in return for maintaining at least a certain number of trees per acre. We could harvest the excess during the contract, and at the end of the we'd no longer be bound (e.g., we could harvest, or sell more CO2 credits).

 

If this is something that interests you, this webinar might be worth watching:

 

http://www.forestrywebinar.net/webinars/carbon-trading-101

 

April 30, 2009 at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.

 

Sponsored by the Texas Forestry Assn.

 

 

EQIP and FLEP

I've had the opportunity to compare EQIP and FLEP funding programs for small landowners. Yesterday I walked the woods with a team of USDA foresters and wildlife biologists who authorize EQIP federal grants for sustainable forest management.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is run by NRCS, the Natural Resources Conservation Service of USDA. These guys drove down from Okanogan WA, then spent the better part of an afternoon touring our stands and explaining their grant program.

They say we're likely to be approved for a 5-year contract with grants to cover a variety of activities, including thinning, pruning, slash disposal, pest management and wildlife habitat. 

Meanwhile, we have time left on our Forest Land Enhancement Program (FLEP) grant issued by the WA DNR. We'll spend this summer doing work under that program. 

FLEP pays 50% of the cost of approved practices, up to a modest limit per acre.

EQIP is not a matching grant, the payment amount is fixed per practice, per acre.

For pre-commercial thinning, for example, FLEP pays us half of actual cost up to $220 (i.e., FLEP will pay up to $110) per acre. EQIP will pay actual cost up to $180 per acre. 

Both payment types are reported to the IRS as income and are taxable. Of course you'll have related expenses in excess of the income, unless you do the work yourself. Ask your accountant about a Schedule C or farm schedule on your Form 1040.

The two programs can be "stacked" for the same acreage. They have stops in place to prevent us from being reimbursed more than the cost of a practice -- which is unlikely in any event given the cost of this kind of work. (Using the above example, actual cost of thinning an acre can exceed $1,000 if the stand is dense.)

The key to stacking the programs is to submit costs to FLEP before you collect the EQIP payment. That means aligning the requirements -- for example, pruning the same acres in the same year under both programs. It takes some planning, but by submitting the full cost to FLEP first you avoid having DNR base a significantly reduced payment on your net cost after an EQIP reimbursement.

Program home pages:

Forestland Enhancement Program (FLEP)
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)