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Thinning aims to imitate natural fire Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Justin Cullumbine of Ashland throws fir tree scraps on a slash fire near Williams. Cullumbine and others in the nonprofit Lomakatsi Restoration Project were helping thin forested land owned by Spencer Lennard to make it more resistant to fires. The nonprofit group promotes forest stewardship through ecological restoration and diversity as well as environmentally friendly employment. Nonprofit Lomakatsi project puts people to work near Williams cleaning landowners' old logged area to reduce wildfire hazard By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune WILLIAMS - A dozen forest workers move through the brush and trees, carrying chainsaws and axes. A chainsaw revs up. Seconds later a small tree topples with a whoosh. An ax slices through the air, wielded by a worker who cuts cleanly through the base of a manzanita bush. The fallen bush is tossed onto a nearby pile. "What we are doing is working to avoid catastrophic fires," said Spencer Lennard who, with his wife, Evelyn, owns the forest where the vegetation is being thinned. "If a wildfire does come through here, it's not going to be a dangerous thing. Grants will help with fire hazard reduction The fire hazard reduction and forest restoration work under way in Williams is part of a $193,000 grant awarded through the National Fire Plan program to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic fires in the urban interface while increasing employment. All told, some $2.28 million was awarded in Jackson and Josephine counties during the 2001 fiscal year. The Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior, which includes the Bureau of Land Management, expects to award some $8 million this year in Oregon and Washington, with the majority going to proposals for less than $250,000. How much will be allotted for Southern Oregon has yet to be decided. Much of it will go to communities seeking fire hazard reduction in urban interface areas. Deadline for applying for a grant for the 2002 funds is March 15. For additional information, contact Paul Galloway at the Rogue River National Forest at 560-3404 or any local fire district. "In our own way, we are protecting our little homestead and trying to prevent a wildfire from traveling through the watershed to the rest of the community," he added. "We know wildfires are going to keep coming." The thinning may raise the eyebrows of some who closely follow the philosophy touted by Lennard, executive director of Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, a vocal environmental group. But Lennard is quick to observe that he hasn't gone over to the other side. The work being done on the land, logged years before he and his wife purchased it, is one area where many debating forest issues can find common ground, he said. The thinning work is one of several projects funded by a National Fire Plan grant awarded to the Ashland-based Lomakatsi Restoration Project. The nonprofit group promotes forest stewardship through ecological restoration and diversity as well as environmentally friendly employment. Although Lennard and his wife own 40 acres in the Williams Creek watershed, only seven are being thinned. "We're thinning a perimeter around the house, but we're also leaving a lot of thickly forested areas," he said. "We're creating mosaics like you would find after a natural fire. "My group doesn't want to see any management in the wilderness, only in areas that have been managed before," he said. "We're only cutting some brush and small-diameter conifers and hardwoods. We're removing the lower branches of more mature trees to create a stand characteristic of an older, fire-resistant forest. "It's our vision of sustainable forestry, and one that can provide jobs," he added. And the project is creating jobs, said Lomakatsi Director Marko Bey. Seven of the workers employed in thinning the three Williams properties in the project were hired in Williams, he said. The remainder are Lomakatsi staffers. The group's ecological fuels reduction and forest restoration project moves to three Illinois Valley properties next week, followed by work on private land near the Jackson Well Springs near Ashland in March, he said. New workers will be trained and temporarily employed in the Illinois Valley and Ashland, he said. A portable sawmill called an Economizer will be brought to each area to mill the small timber cut on the property. In addition to providing training and work, the program brings diverse groups together, Bey said. "There is so much potential to build bridges between agencies, the industry, property owners and communities," he said. For instance, Lomakatsi worked with specialists in the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management before starting work in Williams last week, he said. "There is a lot of collaboration that can be done," he said, stressing that all of the work his group is involved in must be environmentally friendly. "There is a lot of interest out there to expand the program," he said. Lennard agreed, saying that thinning and restoration work on land already managed would keep Oregon workers busy for decades. Industrial logging traditionally removes the biggest and best trees, he said. "Taking out the small-diameter stuff like this creates natural fuel breaks," he said. "It's also creating jobs." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.