Forestry work in the Alder Seep

FORESTRY: 2.5 hours: 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM

Pre-commercial thinning, pruning and general clean-up in the Alder Seep and Cedar Shake Park in Eastern Wedge unit #5.

Forestry portion of new trail establishment in Eastern Wedge unit #5. Mostly thinning and pruning in the Alder Seep. Completed the section above the trail (top of the seep) up to the eastern property line. The alders have few, widely spaced branches, many of which are dead and pop right off. Most branches are small, as these alders are growing close enough to shade out the understory. A power pole pruner is needed to get the more numerous live branches higher up. Now is the perfect time to create a clean bole for peeler logs – the trees are tall enough (at 16 years old) to allow pruning of all branches that can be reached (up to about 16 feet) – just one lift (pruning) during the life of the tree. Continued pruning alder limbs and felling suppressed and deformed alders, hemlock and Doug fir from the Alder Seep up over the south bank into the next wet zone. Old cedar stumps and remnants of shake bolt cutting are everywhere in this unit.

Mostly self-thinned 16 year-old alder in the Alder Seep.

This area was clear-cut sixteen years ago and replanted in Doug fir. Only one Doug fir is visible in the photo (the dark tree trunk on the left hand side), as the naturally regenerated alder quickly captured this wet site and shaded out the fir.

Cut down a few suppressed, bent-over and broken-topped alder, and pruned  the low branches. This stand is in surprisingly good shape after surviving the Great Coastal Gale of 2007, and the natural spacing is about right for their age.

Cedar shake bolts and old cedar stumps in the Alder Seep.

There are old-growth Western Red Cedar stumps and logs all throughout Eastern Wedge unit #5. The forest floor is littered with the rectangular chunks (bolts) cut out of the cedar for shingles or roof shakes. This remnant cedar was highly sought after in recent decades by salvagers looking for the tight, straight grain and rot resistance found only in centuries-old wood.

Close-up of cedar shake bolts

Now covered in moss and lichen, there’s no telling how long ago these were cut out of the old cedar logs and split into chunks that could be hauled away on foot. Perhaps these chunks were rejects, or the cutters never came back to claim them. In any case, there are hundreds of these strewn over many acres in Eastern Wedge unit #5. Hence the name “Cedar Shake Park”!