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MONDAY February 23, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels November 21, 2003 Scientists to discuss future of Watershed By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings Scientists will converge on the Ashland Watershed to examine on-the-ground conditions and discuss the future of the area in light of its evolutionary history of regular wildfires and cyclical insect infestations. On Monday, scientists from Seattle to Redding, Calif., will tour sites in the 15,000-acre watershed, which has become unnaturally dense after nearly a century of wildfire suppression. "We're taking these scientists out to see the patient so they can make their own diagnosis," said John Schuyler, Acting Ashland District Ranger. On Tuesday afternoon, the public is invited to a seminar which will feature individual scientists speaking on chosen topics, followed by a one-hour panel discussion. The seminar is scheduled from 1 to 5:30 p.m. in the Arena Room of the Stevenson Union Building on the Southern Oregon University campus. Ashland land managers hope to attract researchers to study conditions in the watershed, according to Marty Main, consulting forester for the City of Ashland. "We want to try and interest the research community in our watershed," Main said. "We have a great natural lab for doing research." Of special interest would be monitoring of conditions before extensive forest treatments or significant wildfires, he said. The U.S. Forest Service and City of Ashland are in the midst of multi-year efforts to thin trees and brush in the watershed, and plan to begin helicopter logging to thin commercially-sized trees from dense, unhealthy stands within a year. Prior to European settlement and effective fire suppression efforts, the watershed was visited regularly by low intensity fires that cleaned the forest. Insect infestations also played a role in thinning stands when drought stressed trees and left them vulnerable to attack, according to scientists. A current widespread infestation at low elevations is killing trees weakened by drought, but trees also may be unnaturally weak because of competition for water, nutrients and sunlight in overstocked stands, according to forest disease researchers. How to best bring the watershed back into balance has been a matter of debate for years. Scientists will discuss those issues during the public seminar. The Tuesday afternoon schedule is as follows: 1-1:30 p.m. - Tom Atzet, regional ecologist for the Rogue, Siskiyou and Umpqua National Forests. Fire regimes of the Ashland Watershed. 1:30-2 p.m. - Don Goheen, research entomologist, Southwest Oregon Insect and Disease Service Center. Insects and disease as disturbance agents in the Ashland Watershed. 2-2:30 p.m. - Carl Skinner, U.S. Forest Service research fire ecologist based in Redding, Calif. Fire ecology of the Klamath-Siskiyou Region. 2:30-2:45 p.m. - Break 2:45-3:15 p.m. - Marty Main, City of Ashland consulting forester. Using disturbance ecology to guide forest management decision-making on City of Ashland forest lands ownership. 3:15-3:45 p.m. - John Schuyler, Acting Ashland District Ranger. Current directions on U.S. Forest Service ownership in the Ashland Watershed. 3:45-4:15 p.m. - Jerry Franklin, University of Washington researcher, Seattle. Where have we been and where are we going with the Ashland Watershed? 4:15-4:30 p.m. - Break 4:30-5:30 p.m. - Panel discussion DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: A new improved archive search is coming! Look for it in mid-February! .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams