COCC and county team up in Sisters forest project

Central Oregon Community College (COCC) and Deschutes County wind up a four-year collaboration this month on a 400-acre forestry project north of Sisters. Dubbed the Fremont Canyon Forest Project, the final phase of the project, underbrush mowing, is taking place this week.

The forest parcel is one of many that Joe Stutler oversees in his position as Deschutes County Forester. The position was created a few years ago to meet the expanding need for proper forest management of the county's 6,000 acres of forestland; it was the first of its kind in the state. County parcels range in size from half an acre to more than a thousand acres.

COCC became involved when "the college came to me looking for public land on which to practice forestry," said Stutler. "We put together a Memorandum of Understanding involving the county, COCC and Oregon State University-Cascades Campus."

COCC's part of the project was coordinated by forestry instructor Michael Fisher, who worked the project into a forestry class he teaches every spring. Fisher's past classes conducted similar projects but usually on parcels of only a few acres. This is the first time COCC classes have planned and executed a project of this scale.

"We very much appreciate (Stutler's) willingness to be an advocate for these kinds of partnerships and helping us see these projects to an end," said Fisher. Fisher refers to the class as a "capstone" course that constitutes the final step in a course of study that leads to an Associate of Applied Science degree in Forest Resources Technology.

The first class involved with this project designed a land management plan for the parcel under the direction of the county forester. The second year's class further refined that plan, presented it to the county commission for approval and set the stage for implementation. The third class actually cut the contracts with private businesses to bring the work of the previous two years to fruition; and the project, now in its fourth year, is in the process of being wrapped up. Stutler said that much of the on-site work was performed on frozen ground to minimize forest impact.

David Elpi, owner of Sisters Forest Products, is a local businessman who stands to benefit from the project. "A lot of the wood I bought from that land never would have been considered marketable under old forest management practices," Elpi said. "Our goal on this project is total forest utilization," he explained. "We used every stick down to two inches."

Indeed, much of the wood purchased by Elpi would have been abandoned or burned as slash in logging's "glory days," when the emphasis was to "cut and run" with only the high dollar logs. The majority of Elpi's purchase is small diameter juniper that will end up as posts, poles and firewood.

Stutler explained that the county has an obligation to manage its land in accordance with the "Project Wildfire" standards developed by Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties. The Fremont Canyon parcel has plenty of big pine timber, but juniper and bitterbrush were choking the understory. "We took 1.7 million board feet off the property," Stutler said. More than 60 percent of the wood removed was juniper. Pines up to 14 inches in diameter were also thinned. Juniper trees of 30 inches or more in diameter were spared.

According to Stutler, the county originally faced management costs for this parcel that would have required an outlay of approximately $250,000. Instead, the cooperative project resulted in revenue to the county of $255,000 - a swing of half-a-million dollars in the county's favor! Further, the resulting timber growth on the revitalized land will mean even more incoming revenue for the county in years ahead. "I expect remarkable growth of ponderosa pine over the next several years," Stutler said. He added that no additional fire prevention work would be needed at the site for at least five to seven years.

The on-site work was performed by what Elpi refers to as an "informal consortium" of private businesses dedicated to "total forest utilization." Logs, limbs and even some brush ended up being chipped on-site and transported to the Roseburg Forest Products particleboard plant. Much of the chipped material ended up as "hog fuel" which is burned to fire a steam powered electrical generator. Stutler said that generated power in excess of Roseburg Forest Products' needs is sold back into the power grid.

Melcher Logging of Sweet Home performed the actual cutting and log sales. T2 Inc., also of Sweet Home, did the on-site chipping and chip hauling, and Sisters Forest Products purchased the remaining useable logs. Elpi said that Melcher also sent some of the high-value juniper to Klamath Falls where it ended up as flooring.

The Fremont Canyon Forest Project is roughly eight miles northeast of Sisters. The site is beyond the end of Wilt Road, about three miles north of Henkle Butte.