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Madrones sacrificed for fire safety Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Jacksonville city forester Paul Kangas demonstrates how he "girdles" madrone trees on land the city owns in its rugged watershed. Girdling of the attractive trees - also known as myrtle and laurel - causes the trees to die slowly over several years, providing more food for forest animals and critical shade for native Douglas fir saplings. Crews girdle trees in the Jacksonville watershed By MELISSA MARTIN JACKSONVILLE - As it dies, what provides food for robins and squirrels, shade for young Douglas fir and new, green sprouts for deer? It's a madrone tree that's been "girdled," or cut in three places around its trunk as a way of ridding the forests of wildfire fuels and improving conifer health. About the madrone Arbutus menziesii. That's the Latin description of the evergreen tree named by Archibald Menzies, a surgeon and naturalist from Capt. George Vancouver's 1792 discovery of Puget Sound. He also placed his name on the Douglas fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii. Best known for its peeling bark that reveals a smooth trunk, the madrone can be found from Northern California to British Columbia, but primarily in Southern Oregon. The largest of the hardwood species, the madrone grows about 4 feet per year, compared to a Douglas fir's annual growth of about 2 feet, according to Paul Kangas, of Northwest Forest Resource Management in Medford. Its green leaf stays on for 15 months and drops in late summer. It produces clusters of white flowers and red berries. Early settlers used to call the tree "Indian maiden" because of the bark's color and smooth, skin-like trunk, according to David Vandenberg, a retired Medford forester and genetic tree specialist. Today, many Southern Oregonians know the tree by its common name, "laurel." "You have the Oregon myrtle tree on the coast and when you get into California, you have the California laurel," Vandenberg said. "Here we have the madrone. It's kind of confusing. That's why scientific names in Latin are important." To view old, gnarly stands, hike the Sarah Zigler Trail that begins near the Britt Gardens in Jacksonville, or the Madrone Trail that begins on Roxy Ann Peak near the old gate. City forester Paul Kangas has been conducting the madrone experiments on 58 acres the city owns along Reservoir Road. It's part of the management plan for 1,800 forested acres in the city's watershed. Crews girdled the madrone last month as part of a thinning project to rid a fire-prone hillside of underbrush and hardwoods. They made the triple cuts in smaller madrones - no bigger than 6 inches in diameter - that stifled the growth of Douglas fir of Ponderosa pines. When the madrones are girdled, they sprout and produce stress crops, including an abundance of berries, which the birds enjoy, according to Kangas. During the three to five years that it takes for the trees to die, their canopies continue to provide shade on hot, dry slopes for Douglas fir, he said. It's more common to kill unwanted hardwoods with herbicides; madrone is especially difficult to kill by triple-cutting the trunk. "We knew madrones were difficult to kill with the girdling process," said Dave Vandenberg, a genetic tree specialist. Like Kangas, he is a retired Bureau of Land Management forester. Vandenberg explained why. Normally, moisture and sugars travel up and down the tree trunk from the leaves to the roots, providing nutrients for growth. But the madrone has lateral "veins" as well, he said. "You have to girdle the cambium layer, which has the cells that form the transportation system for the tree," Vandenberg said. Last month's project came on the heels of a 1997 thinning of 40 acres that the city received from county foreclosures during the Great Depression. In 1955, the 2,500-acre Timber Mountain fire ravaged Jacksonville's land, Kangas said. "If we had that same fire today, not only would it devastate the forest, but it would take out houses that weren't there 50 years ago," Kangas said. With that in mind, Kangas also plans slash removal and fire break projects this year. The city received a grant of $11,200 from the Jobs in the Woods program to help pay for the projects. The federal government provided funding because of Jacksonville's extreme fire danger, according to Alan Wetzel, a biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. "The (watershed) is in poor condition and very susceptible for complete burnovers, the growth is so thick," Wetzel said Besides eliminating fire fuels, the projects will encourage the growth of conifers so the city can harvest timber in the future. The city's forests also provide recreation. One of the city's neighbors is the Motorcycle Riders Association, which has owned 220 acres at the headwaters of Jackson Creek since 1971. The group's riding trails bump up against Bureau of Land Management property known as the John's Peak off-road vehicle area. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is studying the region to determine if the state can build and manage a trail system shared by motorcycles, mountain bikes and horses. But Jacksonville must remain a key player in managing its backyard forest, residents say. "The watershed is a valuable asset to the city of Jacksonville," said Donna Schatz, a forestry committee member. Kangas agreed. "To have this piece of land for the city is like having a jewel for the future." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.