Washington Hunter
Well-known member
This is great...the forest service is working on improving wildlife habitat, instead of focusing only on cutting down trees. They overharvested the Skokomish National Forest in the 80's. It was terrible, and yes I saw it with my own eyes. Just guessing here, but it seemed like they cut about 80% of the trees down in 10 or 15 years. I'm glad to see they are working at fixing their mistakes of the past. Another 10 or 15 years, and the Skokomish National Forest may be a good place to kill a deer or elk again. 
hump
Clear Cuts Give Way to Restoration Projects
BY JOHN DODGE
THE OLYMPIAN
SOUTH FORK SKOKOMISH RIVER -- Look no farther than a plateau above the South Fork Skokomish River to see how much U.S. Forest Service management of the Olympic National Forest has changed in 15 years.
On a 33-acre site above the river valley, prairie restoration was the goal of a timber harvest three years ago.
Instead of replanting the site with trees, the Forest Service burned the area to allow native plants like huckleberry, bear grass, trailing blackberry, lily and salal to gain a foothold, much to the liking of elk, deer and the Skokomish tribe.
Long before the river plateau was placed in the national forest system, tribe members would burn the land to keep it in open prairie condition to attract big game for hunting, berries for picking and bear grass for basket weaving.
To keep the land in a prairie condition, it will need to be burned about every five years, noted Olympic National Forest timber and vegetation program manager Dick Carlson.
Moving past clearcuts
Prairie restoration is just one of the many things the Forest Service is doing differently from the days when its primary function was to plan and execute clearcut timber sales.
In this national forest, clearcuts are a thing of the past. All timber sales are designed to help restore habitat through thinning of dense timber stands, leaving the more vigorous trees to grow old and opening up the forest floor to sunlight so everything from mosses to small shrubs to naturally-seeded trees can grow.
By breaking up the tree plantation look that is the legacy of clearcut logging, the Forest Service hopes to introduce a diversity of tree canopies, tree species, snags and woody debris on the forest floor that attracts a breadth and width of creatures from slugs to northern spotted owls.
While timber revenue from logging for local companies and communities is not completely a thing of the past, healthier habitat for fish, wildlife and water quality is the more direct goal.
"What we leave behind is more important than what comes off the forest," said Kathy O'Halloran, natural resources staff officer on the Olympic National Forest. "All timber harvests on the forest are designed to restore wildlife habitat."
Past, present
It's a far cry from earlier decades when the volume of timber harvested on the Olympic routinely topped 250 million board-feet per year.
In recent years, the forest has averaged about 15 million board-feet annually.
The forest also has seen a reduction in work force from 338 Forest Service employees in 1990 to around 100 today.
The reductions are a direct result of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan adopted by the Clinton administration in an effort to end the battle over old-growth forest preservation for northern spotted owls and other imperiled species.
Heavily harvested for almost 40 years, the Olympic National Forest had 80 percent of its 633,000 acres that ring the Olympic Peninsula placed off-limits to logging, either in wilderness areas established by Congress or in late successional reserves identified in the forest plan.
On the remaining 20 percent of the land base, timber can be harvested with habitat restoration as the primary goal.
Intense logging and road building in the past is the main reason the Olympic National Forest Service is so restricted today.
For example, in the South Fork Skokomish River, more than 50 percent of the watershed was clearcut by the 1990s, then replanted in dense, homogenous tree stands. And to do all that logging, four miles of road were built for every square mile of forest.
"We have too many trees and too many roads," O'Halloran said.
Too many of the same age and same species of trees. That's why timber sales aimed at thinning the forests are the only type of harvesting under way.
Differing opinions
Environmental groups like what they see of the Olympic National Forest.
"The Olympic National Forest has been a really good model," said Regan Smith, a conservation associate with the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance. "They're doing a good job of restoration."
Under the current constraints, the forest managers are doing the best they can, said Bob Dick, state manager of the Northwest Forestry Association, which represents timber companies that rely on public land for their timber supplies.
"But I believe the Olympic National Forest should set aside some land for timber production," Dick said. Dick said the timber industry will push for that change when a new plan for the forest is developed in 2007.
In the meantime, diverse interests represented by Smith, Dick and others have worked together to craft a timber sale in the Skokomish watershed that will remove about 2.5 million board-feet of timber from forests choked with too many trees.
The Flat Timber Sale is built around a 2003 federal law that allows the Forest Service to use timber sale money for habitat restoration work in cases where diverse community interests can agree on the harvest plan.
"It shows that there is a lot of common ground," Smith said. "We don't have to be in conflict all the time."
Decommissioning roads
About $75,000 of the money raised from the sale will be used to decommission an old logging road that is prone to landslides that deliver soil and sediments to the South Fork Skokomish River.
"So many of these old roads are just crumbling down the hillside," O'Halloran said.
Since 1991, the Forest Service and its partners have decommissioned 106 miles of road in the Skokomish watershed, stabilized and improved drainage on 108 miles of road and stabilized 247 miles of landslide-prone slopes.
All together, about $10 million of restoration is complete in the Skokomish, with another $10 million of work to go, O'Halloran said.
Many Forest Service employees assigned to the Olympic National Forest say their jobs are more interesting today, compared to 20 years ago.
"The job is a lot more enjoyable now, and a lot more complex," said timber sale administrator Bruce Huntley.
For instance, when Huntley designs a timber sale, the trees in environmentally sensitive areas are left alone. Loggers are required to harvest the smaller Douglas fir trees and leave the larger ones to grow.
And it's commonplace in a timber sale to require two trees per acre to be topped to create future snags for cavity-nesting birds and other wildlife.
"It's a lot more interesting than tying ribbons on trees at the sale boundaries, then cutting down everything inside," Huntley said.
John Dodge covers the environment and energy for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5444 or jdodge@ olympia.gannett.com.
humpClear Cuts Give Way to Restoration Projects
BY JOHN DODGE
THE OLYMPIAN
SOUTH FORK SKOKOMISH RIVER -- Look no farther than a plateau above the South Fork Skokomish River to see how much U.S. Forest Service management of the Olympic National Forest has changed in 15 years.
On a 33-acre site above the river valley, prairie restoration was the goal of a timber harvest three years ago.
Instead of replanting the site with trees, the Forest Service burned the area to allow native plants like huckleberry, bear grass, trailing blackberry, lily and salal to gain a foothold, much to the liking of elk, deer and the Skokomish tribe.
Long before the river plateau was placed in the national forest system, tribe members would burn the land to keep it in open prairie condition to attract big game for hunting, berries for picking and bear grass for basket weaving.
To keep the land in a prairie condition, it will need to be burned about every five years, noted Olympic National Forest timber and vegetation program manager Dick Carlson.
Moving past clearcuts
Prairie restoration is just one of the many things the Forest Service is doing differently from the days when its primary function was to plan and execute clearcut timber sales.
In this national forest, clearcuts are a thing of the past. All timber sales are designed to help restore habitat through thinning of dense timber stands, leaving the more vigorous trees to grow old and opening up the forest floor to sunlight so everything from mosses to small shrubs to naturally-seeded trees can grow.
By breaking up the tree plantation look that is the legacy of clearcut logging, the Forest Service hopes to introduce a diversity of tree canopies, tree species, snags and woody debris on the forest floor that attracts a breadth and width of creatures from slugs to northern spotted owls.
While timber revenue from logging for local companies and communities is not completely a thing of the past, healthier habitat for fish, wildlife and water quality is the more direct goal.
"What we leave behind is more important than what comes off the forest," said Kathy O'Halloran, natural resources staff officer on the Olympic National Forest. "All timber harvests on the forest are designed to restore wildlife habitat."
Past, present
It's a far cry from earlier decades when the volume of timber harvested on the Olympic routinely topped 250 million board-feet per year.
In recent years, the forest has averaged about 15 million board-feet annually.
The forest also has seen a reduction in work force from 338 Forest Service employees in 1990 to around 100 today.
The reductions are a direct result of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan adopted by the Clinton administration in an effort to end the battle over old-growth forest preservation for northern spotted owls and other imperiled species.
Heavily harvested for almost 40 years, the Olympic National Forest had 80 percent of its 633,000 acres that ring the Olympic Peninsula placed off-limits to logging, either in wilderness areas established by Congress or in late successional reserves identified in the forest plan.
On the remaining 20 percent of the land base, timber can be harvested with habitat restoration as the primary goal.
Intense logging and road building in the past is the main reason the Olympic National Forest Service is so restricted today.
For example, in the South Fork Skokomish River, more than 50 percent of the watershed was clearcut by the 1990s, then replanted in dense, homogenous tree stands. And to do all that logging, four miles of road were built for every square mile of forest.
"We have too many trees and too many roads," O'Halloran said.
Too many of the same age and same species of trees. That's why timber sales aimed at thinning the forests are the only type of harvesting under way.
Differing opinions
Environmental groups like what they see of the Olympic National Forest.
"The Olympic National Forest has been a really good model," said Regan Smith, a conservation associate with the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance. "They're doing a good job of restoration."
Under the current constraints, the forest managers are doing the best they can, said Bob Dick, state manager of the Northwest Forestry Association, which represents timber companies that rely on public land for their timber supplies.
"But I believe the Olympic National Forest should set aside some land for timber production," Dick said. Dick said the timber industry will push for that change when a new plan for the forest is developed in 2007.
In the meantime, diverse interests represented by Smith, Dick and others have worked together to craft a timber sale in the Skokomish watershed that will remove about 2.5 million board-feet of timber from forests choked with too many trees.
The Flat Timber Sale is built around a 2003 federal law that allows the Forest Service to use timber sale money for habitat restoration work in cases where diverse community interests can agree on the harvest plan.
"It shows that there is a lot of common ground," Smith said. "We don't have to be in conflict all the time."
Decommissioning roads
About $75,000 of the money raised from the sale will be used to decommission an old logging road that is prone to landslides that deliver soil and sediments to the South Fork Skokomish River.
"So many of these old roads are just crumbling down the hillside," O'Halloran said.
Since 1991, the Forest Service and its partners have decommissioned 106 miles of road in the Skokomish watershed, stabilized and improved drainage on 108 miles of road and stabilized 247 miles of landslide-prone slopes.
All together, about $10 million of restoration is complete in the Skokomish, with another $10 million of work to go, O'Halloran said.
Many Forest Service employees assigned to the Olympic National Forest say their jobs are more interesting today, compared to 20 years ago.
"The job is a lot more enjoyable now, and a lot more complex," said timber sale administrator Bruce Huntley.
For instance, when Huntley designs a timber sale, the trees in environmentally sensitive areas are left alone. Loggers are required to harvest the smaller Douglas fir trees and leave the larger ones to grow.
And it's commonplace in a timber sale to require two trees per acre to be topped to create future snags for cavity-nesting birds and other wildlife.
"It's a lot more interesting than tying ribbons on trees at the sale boundaries, then cutting down everything inside," Huntley said.
John Dodge covers the environment and energy for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5444 or jdodge@ olympia.gannett.com.
