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Public has say in big pines' future Photo by Paul Fattig Plant pathologist Ellen Goheen, left, and Prospect District Ranger Joel King, a soil scientist, say the Forest Service has to take action to prevent the death of the famous giant sugar pines along Highway 62 near Prospect. Highway 62 grove's too crowded By PAUL FATTIG PROSPECT -- When Ellen Goheen and Joel King stand before the fallen Mammoth Pine, they see a sobering reminder of what may lie ahead for what has historically been considered the world's biggest sugar pine grove. The famous giant tree along Highway 62 in the Prospect Ranger District of the Rogue River National Forest may be on the ground, but the stump measures 7 feet 11 inches in diameter. And the trunk stretches some 224 feet. "What the Mammoth Pine represents is hard to fathom from the way humans look at time," said Goheen, a Forest Service plant pathologist. "... It's something very special." "I feel a reverence for life when I see this," added King, the Prospect District ranger and a soil scientist. " ... We need to manage this in a way these resources are here for our great-grandchildren." They also know that, while a tiny mountain pine beetle may have killed the centuries-old behemoth in the mid-1960s, it was stress caused by fire suppression by humans that set the tree up for the kill. As a result, the Forest Service is looking at ways to halt the devastation of the trees in the scenic corridor along Highway 62 between Prospect and Union Creek. "Many of these large pines are way too crowded for the conditions they like," Goheen explained. "They are not getting the water and nutrients they need. As a result, they are weakened. The beetles are drawn to these trees. And the beetles can actually use some pheromone chemistry to encourage other beetles to come to the weakened tree." Last year, some hazard trees -- all dead -- leaning toward the highway were removed along the corridor. The dead trees leaning away from the road were left standing, King noted. "The operation of removing the hazard trees leaves me, and probably some members of the public, to ask what is the best way to manage this area," King said. "Is it just to react to the mortality of the big trees and take them out as they occur? Or should it be to try to maintain the big tree structure?" The agency wants the public to be involved in the process that will determine the future of the corridor's giant trees, King said. "We're going to give the public facts," he said. "We will make scientists available to folks." To help the public understand the options, the district plans to establish four demonstration plots early this year at the intersection of Woodruff Road and Highway 62 a half dozen miles north of the ranger station. The sites, each covering more than an acre, will include four types of management: light thinning from below, heavy thinning under the canopy around large pines, prescribed burning and no action. Although the decision on the demonstration plots will likely be made next month, the decision on long-range management will take much longer, King said. But the final management plan definitely will not remove trees within the highway right-of-way as was done on the highways near Diamond Lake, King stressed. "That's not what we're talking about at all," he said. "We're talking about trying to maintain a corridor with big tree characteristics. "One of the things neat about this ranger district is that they didn't clear the right-of-way on Highway 62," he added. "It has left the place unique -- where the trees come right up to the highway." Besides the pine beetle, the trees in the corridor have had to withstand white pine blister rust fungus from Asia that infected the forest around 1910, killing smaller sugar and western white pine while putting additional stress on large trees, Goheen said. But fire suppression during most of the last century was the culprit that disrupted the natural balance, she reiterated. Surveys in the mid-1990s indicated that one out of 10 of the pines larger than 20 inches in diameter have already died. "That's about 200 times what we expect the normal mortality rate to be in a pine stand where you have fire as a regulator of competing vegetation," she said. "Pines really need their space." It was lack of space that contributed to the death of the Mammoth Pine, she said. "The idea of calling it the Mammoth Pine site is not appropriate anymore -- the mammoths are dying," she said. "The nature of the mortality is slow, but it's happening." (For more information or to comment on the project, contact King at 541-360-3400. Additional information about the corridor is available on the Web at www.fs.fed.us/r6/rogue/corridor.html ) Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA