Monday, June 28, 2010

Signs of Sustainable Forest Stewards

We have been honored in recent years with two certifications for sustainable forest stewardship. So we have two signs we're very proud of, that we plan to post in a few years, after the heavy work on our property subsides.

The "Stewardship Forest" sign on the left was awarded to us in 2007 after we completed a 9-week course offered by the Washington State University Forestry Extension. The culmination of that course was a Forest Stewardship Plan, approved and signed by our Washington Department of Natural Resources forester. Andy Perleberg of WSU, and John Keller of DNR, led the instruction. (We went on to complete the Advanced Stewardship Course with lead instructor Kevin Zobrist of WSU.)

The "Family Forest" sign on the right indicates that our property has been certified as a sustainable forest by the American Forest Foundation (AFF) American Tree Farm System (ATFS). Wood products from an ATFS certified forest are stamped so the end user knows the wood was grown and harvested sustainably. Andy Perleberg at WSU oversaw the process of applying for certification in 2009. Having a written management plan was a prerequisite.

Rather than risk having the signs damaged by heavy equipment or falling trees, we'll keep them in a safe place for now. This is a web exclusive sneak preview for our blog readers.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Small-Scale Logging: Moving Slash

(Click the video to see a larger version in a new browser window.)

We're logging hilly terrain, where level landing space is scarce. We winch logs out of the woods using a small tractor and a logging winch blade. We prefer to bring them out with the limbs and tops -- guts feathers and all, as they say.

We skid a few at a time to the landing. Then we limb them on the landing before we buck and deck them.

That process creates a big slash pile in a hurry, and that takes up space and makes it hard to maneuver equipment the way we need to.

So we started piling slash in a small utility trailer, and hauling it to another, unused landing, where we can burn it this winter.

Now, it's enough work to hand-pile slash into a trailer. We didn't cherish the idea of unloading it by hand.

So we came up with this idea. (Look under your trailer before you try this at home; see note below.)

Over time we'll have to develop a better, safer technique, but this is how we did it the first time:

Hook one log fork under the hitch, lift the front enf off the ground, and make a dump truck bed out of the trailer. The slash slides right out onto the ground, in a perfect 4 by 8 foot pile, ready to burn. Note the wheels of the trailer come completely off the ground, which is necessary to get the slash to slide.

One problem is the trailer's tendency to jump off the fork and roll away (possibly a later video?). We started hooking through the hitch's safety chains for better control.

The trailer is a light-duty snowmobile trailer with a tilt bed. However the bed doesn't tilt far enough to dump the contents. The design of the trailer is such that the rear underside can touch the ground without breaking or bending anything.

Please be careful. This is definitely not an OSHA-approved maneuver.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Solstice weekend work mostly rained out

This is the wettest spring I can remember in 9 years of working this property. In the past 2 weeks we've had rain storms that reversed all the drying we've had. Even the rocked roads get slick and tricky to drive, especially down the canyon. The clay logging roads and trails get too soft to operate on.

They dry up in a day or two of no rain. Saturday we got some logs yarded out of the woods near our north line, which is on a ridge. We worked until 6, it being still very bright out. Around the Summer Solstice it's light until nearly 10:00. Unfortunately it was too chilly to dine outdoors, something we typically enjoy doing this time of year.

Then that night it rained steadily, and continued drizzling through lunch on Sunday. I got some indoor projects done -- repairing the plumbing in the RV we call the "instant cabin," checking the water in our solar power battery bank, and taking photos of a generator we later sold on Craigslist. (We're in the market for a solid-running 5kW diesel genset, if you know of one.)

When it cleared up, we pulled noxious weeds along the lower part of the shared road. I wish other people would tend to their own weeds, as we do with ours. Knapweed blooms down there, and the seeds travel onto everyone's properties in the mud in our tire treads. The only way to control invasive species like this on our property is to slow them down at the source.

USGBC LEED should recognize ATFS certified wood products

Last week, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) released for public comment a fourth round of draft benchmarks to evaluate forest certification programs in the LEED green building rating system.

The LEED green building rating system gives points to builders who use sustainably grown and harvested wood products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

As an ATFS certified forest owner, I'm in favor of USGBC recognizing more standards, rather than exclusively FSC. Eastside Washington mills use ATFS, not FSC. The USGBC decision limits the market for green-building materials from central and eastern Washington state.

If adopted, the benchmarks would result in continued exclusion of independent forest certification standards in widespread use in North America, including the world’s largest certification standard, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. The bottom line is that three quarters of the certified fiber in North America may not be recognized by LEED’s certified wood credit.

Tom Martin, President & CEO of the American Forest Foundation (AFF) and parent organization of the American Tree Farm System (ATFS), wrote: "After almost 10 years of discussion with the forest community, USGBC continues to discourage the use of wood products in green buildings, and perpetuates their preference against wood products from family-owned forests certified by ATFS. Even though USGBC claims they are developing benchmarks to open up their green building standards to more certified wood products, all you need to do is look at the benchmarks to see that they continue to skew their standards toward one wood certification only."

Nine U.S. governors have written letters and more than 5,700 forestry experts, architects and builders have signed a petition.

SFI has a short video about green building and forest certification, at http://sfiprogram.org/leed.

Sign a petition:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/leed/

Tweet your support:
http://act.ly/1th

Vote if you're a USGBC member:
https://www.usgbc.org/Login.aspx?REFERRER=%2fDisplayPage.aspx%3fCMSPageID%3d2070

Thursday, June 10, 2010

DNR Inspection for FLEP

DNR Forester Bart Ausland visited our property yesterday to inspect work we performed under our Forestland Enhancement Program (FLEP) cost-share agreement that will expire on June 30.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Twin Fawns

On the way up to the property today,
I saw 4 deer in the driveway.

One pretty muledeer doe
had twin newborn fawns in tow.

Instead of bolting from the road (the banks were steep),
she and the little ones trotted ahead of my Jeep.

As she led the fawns on a mile-long uphill run,
I kept a good distance and had some fun --
taking cell phone photos out the windshield,
like this one when we reached a green field.

The fawns are barely 20 lbs, all fluff.
Exercise like this will make them tough --
and ready to deal with the summer heat.
When we parted paths, the fawns looked beat.

Another of the does had a fawn with her.
The fawns force the does to travel slow.

They're clumbsy, all legs and fur,
which makes them entertaining to follow.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Logging is in full swing

I thinned 3 acres thus far this summer, and I hope to thin 2 more. We're working on the north line of our property, which is along a ridgetop.

On the other side of the ridge is an unmanaged, overstocked Douglas Fir stand on a steep slope. If a fire approached from that direction, it would move swiftly onto our property. We would want such a fire to slow and drop to the ground, rather than rushing through the canopy toward our cabin. The ridge can be a line of defense.

Our strategy is to go for some extra spacing in the trees right along the line, creating a "shaded fuel break" about 40 or 50 feet wide for the full width of our property. Then over the course of 200 feet the trees "feather in" to a more dense spacing, reaching the standard 20 foot stem spacing.

Along with that strategy is an overall preference for Ponderosa Pine, which is more fire tolerant than Douglas Fir, and has a better chance of surviving a ground fire.

I'm an amateur at felling trees, and always will be. Thinning on a moderate slope seems to take me about 20-25 hours per acre. That's including time for hung trees, teepees, bound saws, thrown chains, sharpening, and bushwhacking around the hillside from tree to tree. I try to get started early and get in at least 6 hours a day. I can fell anywhere from 10 to 25 trees in that time.