School forest project deemed a success

A forest thinning project aimed at fuelsreduction and beetle control and forest thinning on acreage owned by Sisters School District north of the high school appears to have been a success.

Scott Melcher, co-owner of Melcher Logging Co. of Sweet Home, gave the school board a detailed report of his company’s work on Monday, May 8. He also gave the board a check for $1,211, carrying out his original promise to give the district any net profit that accrued.

The work was done during 10 days in March. It consisted of thinning 165 acres of pine forest between the high school and the southern boundary of Tollgate. The purpose was to take out brush and small trees, primarily those under 12 inches in diameter, to improve the health of the larger trees. The results are expected to reduce the chance of devastating fire and to help the larger, healthier trees ward off an infestation of Western pine beetle.

Most of the acres treated are part of what is known as the Trout Creek Conservancy Easement. The school district acquired 200 acres in a three-way land exchange involving the Forest Service and Deschutes County in 1997. It used 40 acres for the new high school, has another 40 for unrestricted use and has the other 160 in the easement, which is managed by the Deschutes Basin Land Trust primarily for the preservation of a rate plant in the area, Peck’s penstemon.

When district grounds maintenance man Gary Pepperling discovered beetles infesting the pines in this area last year, foresters prescribed a thinning project. And the logical candidate for performing the work turned out to be Melcher Logging, which had done similar work elsewhere in the region.

Melcher uses a “cut-to-length” thinning system intended to minimize impact on the forest floor. “It involves two machines and two men. They process (clip off) the tree at the stump and carry the wood out of the forest instead of dragging it on the ground,” Scott Melcher explained when the project began.

As it turned out, his two harvester machines moved faster than he expected so he had to use two forwarders to keep up instead of only one as planned. This raised costs to $4,396 per day, more than $700 above original estimates for harvesting. But it also reduced the total time required.

The thinning yielded an average of $206 per acre in commercial saw logs and $54 per acre in chip logs. But with a higher rate of daily production than anticipated, when all costs and revenues were computed, Melcher came out with a net profit of $7.34 per acre.

His written report said, “The costs I have used are actual costs plus a normal rate of return. The actual results of this project accurately represent the cost to do work of similar nature. Barring a couple of breakdowns and two days of inclement weather, this was a good job!”

The outcome met the company’s original goal of breaking even so that there would be no cost to the school district.

Melcher told the board, “A healthy forest is more valuable than one in disrepair.” School Board Chairman Jeff Smith said, “We want to thank you for your efforts. This forest wasn’t healthy when you started.”

Several other participants in the project received public credit during the meeting, including Pepperling, Brian Tandy of the Sisters Ranger District (U.S. Forest Service), and Steve Fitzgerald of Oregon State University’s Extension Service.