Nov
30

Exploratory forestry in the Eastern Wedge

FORESTRY: 1.75 hours: 3:45 PM to 5:30 PM

Thinning and pruning with the hand saw in the south end of Eastern Wedge unit #5.

Forestry in Eastern Wedge unit #5: Thinning and pruning with the hand saws. Worked at the entrance to the unit from the path at the end of High Road in the SE corner of the property. Opened a hole in the “veil” of brushy hemlocks at the eastern edge of the clearcut. Massive amount of downed and leaning live and dead trees (16 year-old age class) made it extremely difficult to move around in this zone. Will need to return with the chainsaw to open it up and make the obvious removals of damaged vertical trees before further pruning. It was near dark and hard to see if the trees I was pruning were worth saving. Thickets of large salmonberry dominate and obstruct the understory, but they are at the “decrepit brush” stage, so I will cut them down and they will probably not regenerate in the darkness. Found an occasional viable Doug fir among the predominant hemlocks (along with what appear to be “dead stick” saplings), indicating that this is a Doug fir plantation “gone bad”. Still, there are enough well-formed hemlocks and alders present to make this a productive stand with a little thinning now.

Nov
30

Finished road clearing at the Junctions

ROADSM&R: 2.5 hours: 1:15 PM to 3:45 PM

Cleared off the last of the woody debris between the road junctions in South Side unit #4.

Finished clearing the road section between the first two junctions in South Side unit #4. Heavily impacted area with lots of downed trees, stumps and brush to pull. I had cut up most of the logs earlier, so it was just hand tossing and pulling – no chainsaw work today. This is a wide section of road through a section of un-harvested thin trees. Still some alder seedlings and saplings to pull out in the open section before the first junction, and plenty of dirt mounds to smooth out with a dozer or excavator later on. Took a photo showing the “carpet-bombing” effect of woody debris covering the forest floor.

Slashed storm and logging debris scattered on the forest floor.

A carpet of log chunks and branches is left on the forest floor after clearing the roads and thinning out the most damaged smaller trees in the stand. The road runs along the outside of the close-by trees on the right in this photo. This is roughly equivalent to the “lop and scatter” technique of slash treatment following a harvest. It is hard to tell if any slash treatment occurred after the most recent (2007/2008) harvest, as a simultaneous windstorm brought down far more wood than the logging debris left by the cutters.

Nov
27

Trail siting though Eastern Wedge

TRAILS: 0.75 hours: 4:45 PM to 5:30 PM

Started roughing out a trail from High Road through Eastern Wedge unit #5.

Exploratory trail siting in new Eastern Wedge Unit #5. From the upper High Road landing in south side Unit #4, a fairly level path due east into the hemlock maw. Once inside the veil, found a fairly level bench winding along the contour towards the NE. Started pruning the in-your-face pencil-sized branches on the hemlocks in this area that run all the way to the ground. Cleared decrepit brush and stunted hemlocks along the trail route in this completely closed-canopy zone. Only about a half hour of actual work, as I lost the light. Will need to return with the chainsaw to cut out the suppressed trees and lots  of bent-over live trees – looks like a recent ice storm or some other extreme weather event caused a lot of damage here.

Nov
27

Initial clearing of High Road

ROADSM&R: 2 hours: 2:45 PM to 4:45 PM

Cleared saplings, brush, logs & branches from upper High Road in South Side unit #4.

Initial road clearing on upper High Road in south side Unit #4. Finished clearing from the top landing down to the previously cleared section just above the first junction – about 350 feet. Mostly digging and pulling alder seedlings, salmonberry, blackberry and the occasional Scotch Broom. A small amount of wood chunks to dig out and branches to toss off, as this section was partially cleared on the 23rd.

Nov
27

More trail carving on south side creek bank

TRAILS: 1.25 hours: 1:30 PM to 2:45 PM

Continued carving trail up the south side bank at the lower creek crossing in RMZ unit #3.

Continued carving the path up the bank on the south side of Clearwater Creek where the trail crosses near tidewater. Finished up to where the trail meets the side stream and connects with the South Creek Edge trail – about 15 feet. Hacked out roots & rocks and created a level grade.Shoveled out the side stream  channel to deepen and direct it so that the water doesn’t spread out and muddy the trail.

Nov
23

Plot new trail through Eastern Wedge unit

TRAILS: 0.5 hours: 2:15 PM to 2:45PM

Looked at potential trail routes through Eastern Wedge unit #5.

Scoped out new Eastern Wedge Unit #5, accessed from the top landing of the south side High Road. “Pierced the veil” of thick young hemlocks an entered an alder/hemlock forest, approx. 20 years old, that probably naturally regenerated from an earlier clearcut. Further on, ran into sections of a healthy Doug fir plantation of the same age class, which was probably planted after the clearcut, but was shaded out by the alder and hemlock in much of the area. Surprisingly, the hemlock and especially the alder seems to be robust and relatively well-spaced, although there is also a thicket of suppressed trees mixed in with the hemlocks. No sign of pre-commercial thinning in here, but now is a good time to do it comprehensively. Located a massive cedar stump with remnants of shake bolt cutting stretched over a 20-foot area. Will route the trail by this feature and highlight the cut pieces.

Eastern Wedge unit viewed from the top of High Road.

This unit was harvested about 16 years ago, as part of the hillside in the background. The property boundary line runs horizontally across the hill about half way up. Doug fir was planted on the entire hillside, but on the lower part, in a wet depression, Red Alder (bare trees with a red tinge) overtook the fir and became the dominant species.

Originally included as part of South Side unit #4, this is a different age class (10 years older), a different topographic area (the East Hill) and also different silviculturally (a plantation versus natural regeneration), so I decided to create a new management unit for it: “Eastern Wedge #5”, because it is on the eastern edge of the property and it is wedge-shaped.

 

Nov
23

High Road initial clearing

TRAILS: 1.25 hours: 1:00 PM to 2:15PM

Initial clearing of the top of High Road in South Side unit #4.

Started clearing the top part of the High Road in south side Unit #4, with the shovel and hand saw. The shovel broke after a few minutes, so I pulled as much of the alder and blackberry as possible Also tossed the sparse branches and log chunks off this wide road bed through the clearcut zone. Partially cleared just over 100 feet down from the landing at the top. Scattered small scotch-broom along the road and landing – tightly pruned into compact balls by the elk – and easy to pull out intact. Lots of tiny cedar seedlings taking root in the road – will come back later for transplanting.

Nov
23

Trail carving on south side creek bank

TRAILS: 1.5 hours: 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM

Carved trail up the south side bank at the lower creek crossing in RMZ unit #3.

Started carving the path up the bank on the south side of Clearwater Creek where the trail crosses near tidewater. Hacked out roots and rocks to create a level, gentle grade up from the stream bed. Carved about 15 feet in length to create a solid path, with about the same distance still to carve. Slow going but the end result is well worth it – a well sited and low gradient climb out of the stream basin in an otherwise steep and slippery area.

Nov
21

Trail creation up Middle Ridge on the South Side

TRAILS: 3 hours: 2:45 PM to 5:45 PM

Completed Middle Ridge trail up to skid road system in South Side unit #4.

Trail establishment in south side Unit #4: Completed the central ridge trail from the remnant grove up to the road system at the second junction. Very tough and thick area with multi-layered piles of blow-down and logging slash, and some larger trees to cut through. Ended up with a wide, nicely-graded path that will likely end up as a skid road in the near future. Also cut up more logs and tree tops on the road between the road junctions, but ran out of light and had to leave the cut-up chunks to toss later.

 

Nov
21

Storm damage cleanup on Middle Ridge

FORESTRY: 0.5 hours: 2:15 PM to 2:45 PM

Storm damage cleanup on Middle Ridge in South Side unit #4.

Forestry in south side Unit #4: Cut down and cut up hanging blow-downs and logging slash in the middle of the central ridge, just below the second road junction. Worked the west side of the ridge, connecting to the already cleaned-up section in the un-harvested stand to the south.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEFORE and AFTER: Tower-logging landing in action and 6 years later.

Vigorous natural alder regeneration in the formerly bare, scarred log deck at the top of the North Side,.

The left photo was taken on 2/15/2008,  the right photo on 11/21/2013.