Task force to study dying trees in Eastern Washington

Over the next 15 years, state projections indicate that elevated tree mortality could occur across 2.8 million acres of Eastern Washington, or roughly one-third of the landscape. 

Enhancing Bird Habitat with Nesting Structures

To go with the cabin we're building for ourselves, the NRCS EQIP program is supporting our addition of 45 bird "cabins" throughout our 20 acres between now and 2013. I built the first 25 this year.

Wren et al house, 15 inches tall. The bird cabins are hung about 7' off the ground. The trees are pruned up to 12'-16' so there are no limbs near the nests. The box shown here was made from some rough milled true 1" thick cedar, a gift from Shaun Brender in Peshastin WA. 20 boxes were made from store-bought one-by lumber (planed to 3/4" thick).

Habitat Restoration through EQIP

One concern when thinning trees and mitigating slash is the reduction of cover and habitat for little creatures.

NRCS, through the EQIP program we participate in, provides for the construction of wildlife piles to restore protective cover for squirrels, rabbits, songbirds, even turkeys. These end up looking like 10'x10' slash piles 6' high, but under all that slash the piles are specially constructed according to NRCS specifications to provide lasting, versatile habitat for wildlife.

About 8 logs, 6" to 10" diameter and 10' long, are laid parallel to form the base of the wildlife pile. We just this year thinned the neighboring stand, so plenty of fir logs were available and close by for this project. We used about 12 Douglas fir, apx 12" DBH.

A second layer of similar logs are laid at 90 degrees to form a crisscross structure. The space between the logs is about equal to their widths. The chambers create critter condos, where small animals are safe from predators.

Slash is added on top of this base. Linda gathered nearby limbs from trees we cut this year.

Curt added slash the easy way -- he grabbed 3 nearby slash piles and moved them onto the wildlife pile with the backhoe.

Linda kept adding limbs until the pile reached about 7' high. This will settle to 6' or less over the winter.

Here's the finished wildlife pile, just over 10' square.

EQIP pays about $85 per pile. We're obligated to maintain the pile for several years, which basically means adding some slash to it in a few years after it settles down below 4' high. About that time we'll be ready to do a brush release in this stand, which will provide plenty of additional material.

See also: Building the second EQIP wildlife pile in 2013.

Snap the Leaf, Know the Tree

Leafsnap is the first in a series of electronic field guides being developed by researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution. This free mobile app uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from photographs of their leaves.

Leafsnap at iTunes

Dual Certification in FSC and ATFS for Small Forest Owners?

The Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association published an article explaining how Forest Stewardship Council and American Tree Farm System certification programs can offer complementary services to small family forest owners.

The author had managed FSC, Sustainable Forest Initiative, and ATFS certification for six million acres of Wisconsin DNR forestry programs. He says the dual FSC-Tree Farm certification can be highly effective. The two programs have different missions. FSC certification offers the most compelling market benefits, while Tree Farm engages landowners with outreach and education.

Read the article "Tree Farm and FSC: Family Forests' Dynamic Duo"

This is Laminated Root Rot

We have our share of Phellinus (Poria) weirii -- Laminated root rot.

Laminated root rot is the cause of the high percentage of dead fir snags in a few small areas of our property.



This tree fell during the winter and I discovered it in the spring. Notice how small the root wad is, compared to what a healthy blow-down would have. Another tree fell about 50 feet away.

 

Leaning fir trees often indicate weak roots. Butt rot is obvious here: the fir is slowly uprooting and has already lost its top. It's surrounded by fir snags and large living fir trees with weeping trunks.

This is considered to be the most damaging root disease in the Pacific Northwest, as it kills the greatest concentrations of trees in the areas where it is present. Sometimes called butt rot, this disease is most tragic because it kills all Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in an expanding radius and makes it impossible to grow that species again in that location.

Root rot is most obvious where there is a patch of jack-straw trees, snags and leaning trees. Dead fir saplings among fir snags are a pretty sure sign. Look more closely for weeping tree butts, fading  crowns and firs that fall by uprooting -- particularly if the root wad appears unusually small for the tree.

The disease is spread by root contact between an infected tree and healthy ones. The disease kills susceptible hosts by either predisposing them to windthrow by rotting the major roots, or by destroying their ability to take up water and nutrients. Saplings and small poles are usually killed quickly, while older trees may confine the fungus to a small number of roots or to the butt log and survive for many years.

The fungus may remain viable in stumps for 50 years and thus infect regeneration, although it typically takes 10 to 15 years for roots of the new trees to make contact.

There is no treatment for root rot. The only recourse is to cut all trees of that species in the infected area, and one more tree's width (drip line radius) around the circumference of that area to be sure. Sadly, this sometimes involves clear-cutting a sizable area. Our neighbors just over the ridge did that, although I'm not sure they know it, maybe the logger made that decision for them. The timber generally is merchantable.

If we postpone action, the area only gets larger. In one area we cut about an acre of infected fir trees, but we were able to leave several very tall, healthy Ponderosa pines.

Started Logging for the 2011 Season

My first realization, as I marched into the woods with my saw, tools and safety gear, was that all my skiing over the winter didn't keep me in shape for this. My second realization was that my aim is rusty.

Two weeks ago, we turned our attention to cutting trees from 3.5 acres in the north end of our property. It's been several years since a crew thinned this stand from below, cutting everything under 7 inches dbh and pruning the marked leave trees up 12 feet.

This summer we need to remove about half the remaining trees, predominantly Douglas Fir, mostly from 8 to 20 inches dbh. Our final density will be about 110 trees per acre. At the end of the summer a crew will prune the leave trees up to 16 feet. This is all part of our NRCS EQIP contract.

So last week I donned boots and hardhat, fueled up my Stihl 440 chainsaw, strapped on my tool belt, and climbed through thick brush up a draw. Once I caught my breath, I felled the first couple of trees with no problem. Then they started falling a few degrees off where I wanted them to fall. This led to trees hung in the branches of other trees, which gets complicated. I can't work under that hung tree, lest it suddenly falls of its own accord. We could cut the tree it's hung in, but often there's a blue mark indicating it's a carefully selected leave tree.

The safest way to drop the hung tree is to winch the butt out from under it. We did this with 2 trees the first day. Only 10 trees made it to the ground that day.

This week, with a freshly sharpened chain, I was able to hang more trees more efficiently in less time. Getting frustrated and creative led to another problem: a tee-pee of trees. When I hung the first tree of the day, I saw that I could fell another tree that would hit the hung tree, bringing both to the ground like dominoes. Instead, it hung, too. In my brilliance I added a third tree to the structure. Now it was unsafe to approach within 1/2 mile of this mess.

The only solution was to stop work and get the tractor to winch the trees down. The first two came down easily. As we stood in the woods discussing our strategy for winching the third tree, it came crashing down. It was a close-up reminder that it can happen any time, without warning.

Sayonara, Slash!



This pile had flames around 20' high, which is not uncommon. We burned 91 piles like this in March-April. 

Pruning trees reduces fire risk. The limbs become slash on the ground. Slash becomes piles. Piles become fire.

Firewise practices include reducing "ladder fuels" by pruning trees up above the level of a ground fire Through the NRCS EQIP program we're pruning trees up to 16 feet.

Some debris can stay on the ground to rot and return nutrients to the soil. Too much debris is a fire risk. To reduce that risk, some of the wood can be piled to be burned when the ground is wet or snow-covered.

We do a combination of practices, piling small-diameter limbs and tops, leaving wood larger than 4" diameter as ground wood.

The amount of pruning waste is impressive. The lower limbs of one mature tree produces enough slash to make a pile 4' x 6' and 3' or 4' high. Most piles are 4x6x8' and include the bucked stems of small trees removed during understory thinning.

We come back around in early March, when there's still snow on the ground, and torch the piles. A propane flame thrower works efficiently.

We burned 91 piles in the spring of 2011, and it's a lot of work. Usually we had 2-3 people working their own areas. We worked 4 weekends this spring, actively tending fires for most of the day.


Working my way across a slope I lit the pile in the far distance, then the nearer piles, and I'm waiting for this pile to grow to its maximum size before I move on to the piles upwind of me on this slope.



We torch one pile at a time per person, and tend that pile until its flames subside. That can take 10 minutes, or 45 minutes, depending on the pile.

Then we move on to another pile. Throughout the day we circle back to all piles and "throw in the bones" that have escaped the flames. We use a "fire rake" for this, but a stiff yard rake or hoe is sufficient. As the ground dries we start carrying a water pack with a sprayer.

That's it 'til fall. It's now too dry to do this -- the fire crawls across the slope through the duff, creating more work for us just to contain the spreading fire.

Counting old-growth tree rings

A healthy Ponderosa Pine blew down this winter. We cut the log loose from its stump and saw some interesting ring patterns we hadn't noticed in other trees. There were long periods of drought when the tree was young, but no apparent fire damage. That puzzled us.


This tree had rings so tight at times it required a magnifier to count them.

We decided to count the rings. We fetched a magnifier, marker and push-pins, and started at the outermost ring.

When this tree was alive it was leaning, slightly bent, not very tall or large, probably of no commercial value -- that's what saved it from the saw over the decades, even when this canyon was last logged in the 1970s.

The tree turned out to be approximately 170 years old. That means it sprouted in about 1841. In that year Lieutenant Charles F. Wilkes led a U.S. Naval expedition of the Pacific Northwest. Oregon was not yet an organized territory. A group of pioneers led by John Bidwell set off on the Oregon Trail, sparking the Great Migration. The Homestead Act and the American Civil War were still 20 years away. WA became a state in 1889, when this tree was almost 50 years old.

This was an attractive tree, one that we left even though it shaded our solar array for an hour on winter days. It had the characteristic reddish bark found only on certain old PPs. Its slant and curve gave it a Bonsai look. It stood in the open, one of two pines on a minor ridge.

This relatively small Ponderosa Pine was about 170 years old. It sprouted before the Civil War.

Its rings tell a story of survival. It lived through at least two major droughts of a decade or longer -- one in the 1920s, when we believe a forest fire swept across this canyon. Embedded knots terminate about that time, perhaps burned off by a passing ground fire that otherwise spared this tree. The other major drought was in the 1950s.

When the stump dries out I want to cut a slab from it and get it over to our friend Dick S., who is an expert on forest fire ecology in our region. Maybe he can pinpoint the precise year of the fire.

Field Trip!

Summer's approaching and it's time to plan ahead for forest field trips. The ones I've attended have been very informative on many levels. I heard from knowledgable people about forestry, botany, wildlife etc. I met people with properties like mine. And I saw how other people maintain their stands. Plus it's a day off from logging, skidding, or whatever else is on my to-do list that weekend.

E. WA Forest and Range Owners Field Day, June 18, 2011, White Salmon WA
Brochure & registration form, web site

Tri-State (ID-MT-WA) Forest Owners Field Day, July 9, 2011, Mullan ID
Contact Kirk David, Idaho Forest Owners Assn, 208-262-1371, kirkdavid at earthlink dot net

W. WA Forest Field Day, August 20, 2011, in Jefferson County, near Chimacum WA
web site

"The First 10 Years" virtual tour for the Coached Planning course

I spoke last night to a classroom full of family forest owners starting their forest stewardship course aka "Coached Planning" thru WSU Extension Forestry.

I did a 20-minute slide show and story of our first 10 years as forest owners, and what we got out of the class they're taking now. The lead instructor figures they've taught over a thousand families to be sustainable forest owners.

If you're the owner or manager of a small (under 1000 acres) forested parcel, and you're not already a trained professional forester, please consider taking this course.

You're making decisions every year that have long-range implications. You need the knowledge to make those decisions. You don't get a do-over for letting butt rot take all of your Fir, or for destroying a fragile habitat. Not knowing is not an excuse.

The class is fun and informative. You'll meet instructors who want to serve as resources to you after the class is over. And you'll get to know other students who are in your situation. Plus there's the added bonus of seeing my slide show!

At the end of the course you'll have a completed Forest Management Plan. Our plan has qualified us for state and federal grants upward of $10k, got us into the Designated Forest Land class that cut our property taxes in half, and helped earn our land its ATFS certification as a source of sustainably harvested timber.

Forest Planning Rule - Public Meeting in Seattle

The Forest Service will be holding a public roundtable on Wednesday, March 23, 2011, at the Sheraton Hotel in Seattle (1400 Sixth Avenue, Seattle WA 98101) from 1:00 - 5:00 pm to provide information and answer questions about the proposed forest planning rule. This is the only public meeting scheduled in WA on this matter. The comment deadline on the draft rule ends May 16.


Background:

The federal government's National Forest management rules proposal is being developed under the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), the law that governs most Forest Service activity. The proposal would replace current NFMA rules originally developed in 1982 and would apply to 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands in 44 states.

In 2005 and again in 2008, the Bush administration tried to rewrite these regulations, lifting the requirement that the Forest Service manage its lands so that all native species can remain viable. Defenders of Wildlife challenged the Bush administration’s proposals in the courts.

Ultimately, the court found that the Forest Service violated the National Environment Policy Act by approving the new regulations based on a faulty environmental impact statement that failed to analyze adequately the environmental impacts of the new regulations, and that it had violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to examine the effects of eliminating wildlife protection standards on protected species.

According to the Sierra Club, citing a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture report, national forests and grasslands sustain 223,000 jobs in rural areas and contribute $14.5 billion annually to the U.S. economy. National forests are the source of drinking water for about 124 million Americans in 900 U.S. cities.

For more information on the forest planning rule and how it could be strengthened visit http://www.wawild.org/

Animated map of insect pest spread

The Forest Service has animated maps showing annual observations of insect activity as detected during aerial surveys of Washington and Oregon.

I'm not sure why someone would choose green as the color to indicate trees defoilated by mountain pine beetle or western spruce budworm, and gray to show unaffected regions. You just have to use your imagination -- and you might not have imagined the extent of damage from these pests! Click the map below.



Click the map to go to the USFS web page and see animated sequences
of maps showing the spread of budworm and beetle over the course
of 24-28 years. Source: USDA Forest Service.

 Maps will automatically advance every 2 seconds (or every 4 seconds for the slow versions) until the final cumulative map is reached. To restart the animation, click on the "refresh" icon at the top of your browser.

These maps are based on cooperative aerial surveys conducted by Forest Health Protection staffs of the Oregon Department of Forestry, Washington Department of Natural Resources, and the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region.

Aerial survey data for 1980-2009 are available in both .e00 and shapefile formats. If you have a use for those, you probably already knew that.

Farmland Succession Planning workshop for attorneys

On February 4th, 2011, the Office of Farmland Preservation offers a Continuing Education opportunity for attorneys focused on succession planning training for farm families in our state.
This complimentary one day conference will be held in Everett, WA at the Union Bank headquarters auditorium from 8am until 1:30 pm. Registration begins at 7:30 am. A locally prepared, locally sourced lunch will be provided.
Participants will hear from estate planning experts that specialize in working with farm families, tax specialists giving us a state of the farming community, and much more.
Attorneys earn CE credits at no cost. To register or ask questions, contact Amy Ward with Union Bank at amy.ward@unionbank.com

Rethinking Forests Video Explains Why Management Is Important

This is a good introductory video (7 minutes) to help people understand the importance of managing forests to help the environment, rather than at the expense of the environment.

A century of deplorable timber harvest practices led to public outcry and ultimately ended logging in National Forests. That leaves public agencies with a growing job: fighting forest fires.

Responsible forest stewardship is a way to reduce the threat of fires, make our forests healthy, and give us public lands we can enjoy for generations.

Rethinking Forests Video

Thanks to Andy P, without whom I wouldn't find half the cool stuff I share on this blog.

2011 Brings Back WSU's Family Forest Newsletter

Happy New Year, fellow forest stewards.

"Notes" is back. WSU once printed and distributed a newsletter to over 20,000 family forest landowners. They cut the program in 2005 due to funding shortages. WSU has resumed publication of an electronic-only version of Forest Stewardship Notes, to better serve the more than 215,000 families and individuals that control over 3.2 million acres of private forestland in Washington state.

Subscribe free by following the link in the newsletter.
First 2011 issue

I'm not confident that link will work forever. You might need to go to the WSU Extension Forestry web site, scroll down and find the newsletter there. Washington State Department of Natural Resources contributes to the publication.