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ENVIRONMENT Ashland Watershed forest health prescription: Get thinner Comment By Julie Akins For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By Julie Akins For the Tidings Posted Aug. 28, 2016 at 12:27 PM By Julie Akins For the Tidings Posted Aug. 28, 2016 at 12:27 PM » RELATED CONTENT • Lomakatsi program. • Getting their hands dirty: Lomakatsi employees remove blackberry bushes.... • Firefighters come to Ashland for wildland fire training • Grants of $5.6M to help restore forest » Social News A group of 21 visitors to the Ashland Watershed stand in a place they could not be 10 years ago. The forest would have been too dense. Now, six and a half years since the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project (AFR) began, the area is open, many logs felled and some blackened by a natural fire easily extinguished a few months back. Phase two of the $12 million dollar AFR is completed and phase three is beginning. The first step is marking the trees to be cut. When this phase finishes some 400 acres will be helicopter logged and 200 additional acres will be ground logged. There will also be prescribed burns starting in November and going through March. “We need to burn 300 acres at a time. There will be more smoke in town but fewer days of smoke,” Ashland Fire and Rescue Forest Division Chief Chris Chambers said during a public tour of the area Saturday. He explained that in areas where it’s too steep to get logs out by truck, they use helicopters. Smoke and the sounds of helicopters can annoy people in town but ultimately, he said, it’s necessary to protect the water supply and the environment. Chambers also told the group the purpose of the project is to replicate as close as possible what the natural forest would have looked like 100 years ago when there were a greater number of ponderosa pine which makes the area more fire resilient and protects nesting species, such as spotted owls, which are abundant in the Ashland Watershed. “We’re never going to re-create what we had," said Darren Borgias of The Nature Conservancy, a partner in the AFR project. "But we have to move in that direction. With climate change we’re going to see more fires. It’s important to create resilient forests.” Asked about carbon emissions from controlled burns, he said it’s "short-term pain for a longer-term gain. ... There’s a distinct advantage in the long term in terms of carbon emissions.” He said a large wildfire created by lightning burning out of control would be a cause of more smoke than a control burn and would additionally threaten homes and the water source for the city of Ashland. Ninety-nine percent of all of Ashland’s water comes from the watershed, according to Chambers. Borgias added that a forest populated by ponderosa pine and black oak, as opposed to fir, creates greater open space, which allows snow to fall directly to the ground. That re-charges the groundwater and assists species. “It’s hard to quantify all the aspects and benefits of restoring a forest just in terms of emissions. But it plays a big role in our thinking.” The forest changed from its original makeup of predominately big oak and pine when fire was not used as part of the restoration process. That allowed quick-growing fir to choke out light and water resources, according to Borgias. The team leading the literal boots on the ground in phase three is from Lomakatsi, a nonprofit conservation group that has been working on the watershed forest since AFR began. John Cymore, a lead forester for the group, explains how they choose which trees to flag for cutting. “Ten people are out here and make the decision. We want to open the area for pine,” said Cymore who explains that by spatially arranging trees they can create conditions optimum for fire resilience. He says they generally remove trees under 13 inches. The wood is then sold to lumber companies and the money goes back to the project. Officials say at this point it’s not a break-even proposition. “Lumber is a byproduct of restoration. We’re not doing it for lumber,” said Borgias. Chambers worries people may be displeased with smoke from prescribed burns and the presence of helicopters. That’s why he and the AFR partners do this type of outreach, hoping that explaining what is going on here and why they do it may moderate the reaction. Several among those who signed up for the tour volunteered that they believe Ashland residents understand what’s going on. Meantime, the details of the restoration are tracked, from knowing what the soil is doing, to how many trees and what type are cut, to counting the number of furry little Pacific Fishers there are (up to around two dozen at the last census). Decision making about which trees are cut begins early this week. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. Once you understand what needs to be done, you know,” says Cymore of the decisions he’ll be making. The Ashland Forest Resiliency project is a group effort by the U.S. Forest Service, Lomakatsi Restoration Project, The Nature Conservancy and the city of Ashland. It was created as a way to restore the forest by acknowledging the natural role of fire and working with it. The way the watershed is thinned and managed is based on that principal, as well as other best practices in restoration, according to the partnership. Email Ashland freelance writer Julie Akins at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ @julieakins. By Julie Akins For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By Julie Akins For the Tidings Posted Aug. 28, 2016 at 12:27 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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