ROADSM&R: 2 hours: 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM

Initial clearing of roads in the middle of South Side unit #4.

Road clearing in the south side of Unit #4. Partial clearing between and around the first and second road junctions in the middle of the south side. Lots of downed trees, big and small, to cut up and toss, along with embedded logs, alder seedlings, salmonberry and blackberry to pull out. Fully cleared three small sections of road, especially defining the second junction. Only about 100 feet to go from the second road junction to connect up to the trail coming up the central ridge that I cleared last month. Tossed the woody debris far off the road to expose the mossy berms for a more attractive appearance. There is some heavy alder seedling and sapling regeneration in the more sunny areas of the road around the junctions, so I am avoiding the difficult work of uprooting them. I only pull a certain amount in any one session to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome, blisters and excess muscle strain. Some of the brush and larger trees will require a shovel.

BEFORE: First junction in South Side road, six years after the clear-cut, just before I cleaned up the road.

Many logs are lying across and others are embedded in the road. This was a muddy, rutted mess after the timber harvest. No attempt was made to recondition the roads after harvesting, so the lumps and stumps still need to be dealt with. Clearing off the fallen trees and uprooting the alder saplings and brush now will make for an easier job grading with an excavator or bulldozer later.

AFTER: First junction in South Side road, after I cleaned up the road an.d surrounding stand.

I left a lot of the standing dead snags, taking out the smaller ones. The road is completely cleared of woody vegetation and is ready for the blade – sometime during the dry season.

This photo was taken about a month later (12/13/2013), after I had done some additional clearing work on the trail coming up Middle Ridge (in the center of the photo), so this was a multi-session project.

FORESTRY: 2 hours: 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM

Thinning, pruning and general cleanup along South Side road in South Side unit #4.

Forestry work in the south side of unit #4. General clean-up work: thinning out small dead spars and bent-over live trees, blowdown slashing and stob pruning. Worked the area around the first and second road junctions in the middle of the south side, in the un-harvested zones where there are a lot of smaller trees with jack-strawed and bent-over remnants of the 2007 windstorm. Carpet-bombing style woody debris all over the mostly bare forest floor. Only a few trees and brush are starting to move into the understory, now with light coming in from the adjacent harvested zones.

MONITOR: 1 hour: 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM

Walkabout with observations of wildlife: River otters, elk sign and an odd bird.

Hiking wildlife tour of Clearwater Creek Property: down West Ridge to the creek, photo and video at the mouth of the creek, up to the SW corner and then up the south side to the end of the road near the high point at the SE corner. Noticed one, maybe two river otter in the flood-tide swollen base of Clearwater Creek in my salmon-viewing area – lots of splashing around and some irritated chattering noises for a few minutes and then silence – they vanished.  Possibly a salmon involved with the splashing, but not confirmed like the otter. Lots of elk scat throughout the trail system, much of it recent (within the week), but no elk sighting. One murrelet-type bird zipped out towards the water from the big trees in the SE corner, with a seabird-like repeated, high-pitched, single-note call. On the way in (at the gate) and on the way out (by the tidal slough south of CC), a large brown owl was flying around – too dark to see any other identifying features.

River Otter popping up at the edge of Clearwater Creek.

Very hard to see, but a river otter is staring at me from the water’s edge, a tiny gray figure in the middle of the photo just to the left of the stump. It was furiously splashing around in the tide-swollen creek mouth just moments earlier. Perhaps the salmon are running, but none were evident on this visit.

River Otter swimming at the mouth of Clearwater Creek.

Another poor quality photo off the river otter You can see its wake in the middle of the photo and (barely) see his dark form gliding underwater, heading to the lower left-hand corner.

Mouth of Clearwater Creek at tidewater, with trees in and across the creek.

I cleared a path along the edge of the creek (running up through the middle of the photo) for salmon and wildlife viewing, but left the fallen trees and branches in place within the creek itself. I noticed the otters using them for cover when I startled them, so hopefully it will encourage aquatic wildlife to hang out here.

FORESTRY: 2.25 hours: 3:15 PM to 5:30 PM

Thinning and pruning along the South Edge road in South Side unit #4.

Forestry work in South Side unit #4, in conjunction with road clearing. Thinning and pruning in three areas: SW corner between the road and the southern property line, at the first bend in the south side road (at about 500’), between the road and the southern property line, and on the west side of the road at the junction of the east-bound (uphill) and north-bound (downhill) routes.  Mostly just clean-up of dead standing sticks, dead stobs and horizontal or leaning live suppressed trees. Some jack-straw thickets that just need to be slashed to the ground, so that I can simply move around and operate. Lots of “Wood on the Ground”. A fairly thorough job in the areas I targeted, but it will need a final sweep to tie it all together and call it complete. Most of the “thinning” is of thoroughly suppressed or dead trees that pose no competition threat to the established overstory trees, and is done more for aesthetics and workability (access).

No salmon visible in the stream today, although it was a flood tide and there was rain-enhanced (slightly turbid) stream flow. Passing a hunter on the gravel road at dusk, he mentioned that a herd of cow elk were hanging out in the clearcut – most likely right above where I was working on the south side. A full (double-load) log truck was heading out of the gate as I arrived, so there is current logging activity nearby.

ROADSM&R: 2 hours: 1:15 PM to 3:15 PM

Initial clearing of the South Edge road in South Side unit #4

Road clearing in south side Unit #4, along the southern property line. Finished clearing around the junction at the SW corner of the property, where a large hemlock is laying across the road. Pulled seedling and sapling alder out of the roadway, cut and tossed logs and branches, finishing off the entrance at the SW corner and the top of the roughed-out West Side road. Then moved about 500 feet up the road and cleared another 100 feet from where I stopped last time to the junction of the east-bound (uphill) and north-bound (downhill) routes.

FORESTRY: 1.5 hours: 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM

Thinning and pruning in the established forest near the creek in RMZ unit #3 and South Side unit #4.

Forestry portion of west edge trail creation south of Clearwater Creek. Thinning and pruning in the established forest along the western property boundary just south of the tidal portion of Clearwater Creek. Focused on the open-understory area adjoining the creek (where the boundary line trees were marked with paint), and especially the mini-knoll with the two old-growth spruces. Thinned out the dead and spindly suppressed stems, pruned up as high as possible; cut up and piled obstructing logs and tree tops on the ground to create an accessible, more park-like setting around these impressive specimens.

TRAILS: 3 hours: 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM

Opened new trail along the western boundary from RMZ unit #3 into South Side unit #4.

Trail creation on the south side of Clearwater Creek, along the western boundary from the tidewater bank, south up the gentle grade to the road at the SW corner. The first half of the trail was through mature remnant forest, culminating in a mini-knoll dominated by two old-growth spruces and a few large hemlocks. The second half was through a brushy area, following a very roughed-out road grade in a SW arc along a row of trees to the east.  The brushy area was over-stocked with very young alder (less than 5 years old), in tight patches with seedlings and saplings inches apart. This trail for the most part follows an elk path up a natural ridge, avoiding wet, seepy spots on both sides. It appears that the east side would be a running freshet during high rain events.

FORESTRY: 1 hour: 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Thinning and pruning around the skid road entrance in South Side unit #4.

Forestry portion of road clearing along the South Side road. Thinned out the smallest dead standing and suppressed stems in the narrow strip of established forest between the road and the southern boundary. Not a thorough job – just an initial pass to get the easy and obvious stuff to clean it up a bit. Also pruned off dead stobs and lower limbs on the older trees.

Western property line looking north from SW corner of property.

The blue (and also orange) paint blazes can be found on virtually every tree along the property boundaries, making it very easy to know when you’ve wandered onto your neighbor’s land. Not very pretty, but certainly convenient in a working forest environment. This parcel was recently under industrial timber ownership and is still mostly bordered by commercial lands, so the boundaries are routinely surveyed and re-marked before logging operations are conducted.

This is another monitoring photo for the Current (Original) Condition Documentation taken on 2/15/2008.

ROADSM&R: 3 hours: 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Started clearing the main skid road along the southern edge of the property in South Side unit #4.

Initial road clearing, starting about 100 feet from the western boundary line where the road crosses over from Doug’s property at CC’s SW corner. Cleared about 475 feet of the road, heading east up a very gentle grade. Extremely wide road cut – about 25 feet wide, but fairly rutted out and will eventually need to be re-shaped and graded. Pulled lots of alder seedlings and saplings out of the road, rather than cutting them back with the potential of them re-sprouting. Lots of time cutting out a big old, dead, witches-broom hemlock that had fallen across the road and taken a few cedars with it. Some logs are embedded in the soil and can be removed with road-grading equipment. Cut and tossed many other smaller tree tops and branches out of the road. Almost reached the bend where the road veers NE at its first fork.

West end of main skid road along south edge of property, during logging operations in 2008.

This photo was taken on 2/15/2008 for the Current Condition Documentation report required for establishing the conservation easement on this property. This is one of many “Before” photos taken that day to establish the baseline condition from which any future monitoring assessments would be judged. By October 2013, these rutted, muddy roads were worn down a bit and still lumpy, but mostly grassed over with lots of alder seedlings and small saplings shooting up from the bare, mineral soil.

TRAILS: 4.25 hours: 3:00 PM to 7:15 PM

Started clearing a link between the south edge of RMZ unit #3 up the Middle Ridge to the skid road system in South Side unit #4.

Trail establishment/clearing on south side of creek. Cut open the link between the South Bank trail (near the middle of the property where it meets a side ravine), up South Middle Ridge to an isolated remnant grove, then on up the ridge to within a few hundred feet of the road system. Massive blow-down of large and small hemlocks (from the 2007 windstorm) to cut through – slow but steady progress. Invasive blackberry is spread widely throughout the clear-cut, but the new saplings are already well above the elk-cropped blackberry, so I am only removing ones that are in or next to the trail. Starting to see a lot more cedar seedlings popping up – much smaller than the hemlock regeneration, but not as scarce as I first thought. These can be favored during the first round of thinning in about 5 years.

Middle Ridge in the South Side unit.

Middle Ridge rises up from Clearwater Creek on the right side of this photo, passing through the sparse remnant stand of hemlocks and alders on the left side of the photo, where the skid road system is accessed.

This photo is taken from the High Road in the SE quadrant, looking NW  across Clearwater Creek drainage to Long Island in Willapa Bay on the far horizon. (Photo taken on 11/23/2013).