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June 28, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels February 20, 2004 Thinning likely will break even By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings A project to thin trees on city-owned land in the Ashland Watershed has attracted bids from helicopter logging operators and mills, quieting fears that the large proportion of smaller diameter and dead trees would scare off prospective bidders. Ashland Fire & Rescue Chief Keith Woodley said the city received two bids from helicopter companies on Wednesday detailing costs of removing the trees. Last week, six mills submitted bids for what they would pay for the wood. Woodley said that he is still examining the bids, but the costs of the project likely will be covered by the payment for the timber. "Overall, they look very promising. The potential for the project to pay for itself is real," he said. The project went to bid as timber prices are recovering from a downturn, according to Woodley. "The forest gods, whoever they might be, have smiled on us," said Steve Jensen, chair of the citizen Ashland Forest Lands Commission, which crafted the project with guidance from Woodley and Marty Main, the city's forestry consultant. Reducing wildfire risk The project calls for thinning 183 acres of the city's 486 acres in the lower watershed to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health. Woodley said the final cost and revenue ratio will be determined by such factors as which helicopter company is chosen and which mill is selected. Mill selection affects costs because of the distance to transport logs. "We want to create a match for the best possible relationship," he said. A final decision on which bids to accept will be made within 10 days, according to Woodley. Work could begin as soon as mid-March, with a proposed May 15 completion date. The commission has worked for years to thin city forests using noncommercial methods targeting brush and smaller diameter trees. Although commissioners hope the project can become a model for ecologically based thinning, environmental activist Eric Navickas said he is concerned that the project does not include a tree diameter limit and uses commercial logging methods. 'Light touch' thinning The commission based its wildfire fuels reduction and forest health improvement plan on the principle that no tree would be logged simply to increase revenues from a timber sale - with the result that 68 percent of trees marked for cutting are 12 inches in diameter or less, and 96 percent are 18 inches or less. Small diameter trees generally are less commercially valuable than larger trees, but are more flammable and spread ground fires into canopies. Finding an economical way to remove small diameter material has vexed everyone from Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service staff to private landowners with forested property. The commission plan calls for helicopter logging, which costs more but disturbs soil less than ground-based methods. Jensen said he hopes the plan - which was unanimously approved by the commission last week and will go before the Ashland City Council on Tuesday - can become a model for ecologically responsible thinning. The combined estimated costs for helicopter logging, paying a timber harvest tax and treating logging slash ranges from $271,235 to $300,235, according to Marty Main, the city's forestry consultant and owner of Small Woodland Services, Inc. Projected revenues from helicopter logging range from $230,000 to $276,000, he said. "I think it's very positive compared to where we thought we would be three months ago," said Woodley, who also has aided the commission in crafting the proposal. Main's company lacks the capacity to conduct helicopter logging and would not bid on that work, although the company would treat slash under an existing forest work contract with the City of Ashland, according to Main and Woodley. Ashland Fire & Rescue is applying for a National Fire Plan grant to cover slash treatment costs, said Chris Chambers, grant coordinator for the fire department. Slash treatment costs are projected at $54,900. Under the worst-case scenario with no grant funding, the City of Ashland would need to pay $70,235 to carry out the thinning plan. Conversely, thinning could net $59,665 if the grant fully covered slash treatment. Main cautioned that the cost and revenue projections are estimates that could be affected by an in-progress report on areas of unstable slopes. The commission could bar logging in unstable areas, thus altering the cost and revenue projections. The estimates also depend on fluctuating timber market conditions, the deteriorating quality of dead and dying trees and other factors, according to Main. "Some of the trees I marked in June by now are no longer part of this sale," he said. "With each succeeding month, we have more defect." In recent years, trees on city-owned land and throughout Southern Oregon have shown a spike in mortality due to overstocked stands resulting from decades of wildfire suppression, along with drought conditions. Beetles have infested the weakened trees, causing more losses, according to Southwest Oregon Insect and Disease Service Center researchers. Commissioners have worked for several years on noncommercial thinning of brush and small-diameter trees on city lands, and have reached the point where they believe certain trees large enough to be commercially valuable should be removed. Any tree over 17 inches in diameter and marked for cutting is being tracked, with an explanation given for why it should be removed. Of those larger trees, 70 percent were marked because they are dead, while others were dying, crowding a larger tree or were otherwise undesirable from a forest health perspective, according to the plan. Trees at 17 inches and larger are considered ecologically significant because that is when many scientists agree they begin to exhibit old growth characteristics. The percentage of large trees to be removed could drop even further because of a recent commission decision to not cut snags over 26 inches because of their importance to wildlife. Prior to factoring in that decision, Main reported trees 26 inches in diameter and larger made up less than 1.3 percent of marked trees. An unadjusted total of 6,168 trees are marked for cutting, of which 1,846 are standing dead. Unstable slope mapping likely will reduce the numbers to be logged even further, Main said. Those trees would generate 460,000 board feet. Log trucks would rumble out of the watershed, down Granite Street and out East Main Street to Interstate 5 on the way to a sawmill. The lower watershed area is a critical treatment zone because it lies in the urban/wildlands interface where fires are more likely to start. A wildfire that escaped control could threaten homes and the entire watershed, Main said. 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 Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams