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Forest land group wants larger trees removed from Ashland's watershed By TONY BOOM Mail Tribune ASHLAND - Larger trees should be removed from city-owned watershed lands, say the city's forest land commissioners as they create a plan for a second phase of forest thinning. Commission Chairman Bill Robertson said the more aggressive thinning is all about forest health. But local environmentalists are wary of the plans. During the past six years the city has thinned and burned brush and trees less than 7 inches in diameter throughout the 1,000-acre area. The Forest Service started a similar program last year on 1,500 acres of watershed land under its jurisdiction. Thinning is designed to reduce fire hazard and the chance of insect infestations during droughts. "The noncommercial work looks really good," said environmental activist Eric Navickas of efforts to date. "They have taken out understory that has crowded out big old growth. If they stopped now it would be a really good project." Areas where large trees were logged in the early 1990s now have greater fuel buildup because the forest canopy was fractured, said Navickas. "The more they can maintain the overstory intact, the less they will have to do maintenance." Commissioner Richard Brock, a forest botanist who wrote a draft plan for thinning that is under consideration, said "If you don't do thinning in these places (drought will) bring another epidemic of beetles." The resulting dead trees will increase the chance of fire and erosion in unstable areas. Brock envisions removing many trees up to 12 inches in diameter that have grown up since fire suppression began in the watershed in 1910. He doesn't want a size limit on trees that can be removed. The Forest Service has agreed to leave trees greater than 17 inches in diameter in the watershed. Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center has not taken a position on the draft plan. The center does not want logging on Winburn Ridge, which contains large habitat trees, said spokesman Jay Linninger. Alternatives to mechanical thinning could be used, said Linninger. One of those is girdling, in which bark is removed and the tree dies. The method leaves root systems intact to prevent erosion while other roots grow into the area. It also maintains the forest canopy while other tree branches expand to fill gaps. More thinning would really be commercial logging designed to pay for the project, said Navickas. Commissioners say that's not the case. "We are looking at what we think should be done in the forest," says Robertson. "We are not looking at how the numbers play out." The extent of thinning won't be known until guidelines are developed for tree removal, said Keith Woodley, Ashland fire chief and a member of the commission's staff. "We have to determine what stands would be thinned and to what degree." The commission will hold a public hearing on the plan before it is forwarded to the City Council. Robertson said he hopes a plan is ready by summer. The commission meets Jan. 30 and plans to meet twice per month beginning in February. Reach Ashland bureau reporter Tony Boom at 482-4651, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.