Soggy weather stalls innovative project

The Timberjack roars, growls and grumbles like some predatory prehistoric monster as it seizes a tree in its steel jaws. With the swift stroke of a saw, it slashes the tree off at near-ground level. The jaws rotate and slide up the now-horizontal trunk, stripping needle-laden branches and sectioning the trunk into logs.

It takes mere moments.

Its articulated body twisting amid the trees, the machine moves on to the next selected target, its massive tires packing down a bed of snow.

And that is the key to the operation. This section of the Glaze Forest Restoration Project is in an area with a population of the rare wildflower Peck's penstemon. Working over snow packs down a layer of snow and ice that serves as a barrier between the tires and the ground, preventing damage to the plant life lying dormant beneath.

The equipment itself is designed to minimize damage to the environment.

"It's extremely light on the ground," said Forest Service contract administrator Steve Orange of the Timberjack, run by Scott Melcher Logging out of Sweet Home. "What we call low-impact logging equipment. It's some of the best equipment out there."

For four days last week, Timberjack operator Kelly Lee made great headway in beautiful snow logging conditions - four to seven inches of snow, packing down into that perfect protective layer and temperatures too cold for melt-off.

Then it all changed. A predicted winter storm turned out to more closely resemble spring, with rain and warm temperatures that washed the snow away and stalled out the logging operation. The crew pulled the plug on Friday, January 14.

"Approximately 15 acres were thinned." said Maret Pajutee of the Sisters Ranger District. "The areas that were completed look good and the snow worked great as protection for Peck's penstemon and soils."

The project, which lies alongside Black Butte Ranch west of Sisters, is an effort to restore 1,200 acres of ponderosa pine forests, aspen stands and riparian areas so that it functions as a healthy forest in a fire-prone environment.

The thinning is being done in a mosaic pattern - which foresters describe as "gappy, patchy, clumpy" - so that the forest looks natural and provides good wildlife habitat. No old growth will be cut.

The maneuverability of the Timberjack is ideal for this kind of work, allowing its operator to maneuver in tight spaces and efficiently cut selected trees in a nonlinear pattern. The close shave of the saw means stumps are almost invisible.

Lee, who has operated a Timberjack for seven years, is proud of the work.

"The best part of using this equipment is the end result," he said. "You go into a junk patch and by the time you're done, it looks pretty nice."

The slash from this project will be hauled away for use as biomass. That's in large part to funding secured by Tim Lillebo of Oregon Wild. The conservation activist played a key role in the creation and funding of the project, ultimately helping to secure some $200,000 in grants.

For Lillebo, the Glaze Forest Restoration Project offers an opportunity to start doing more projects that are scientifically based on forest health and "break through the old morass" of conflict among environmentalists, the timber industry and the Forest Service over how best to manage forests.

Lillebo acknowledges that not everybody likes every aspect of the project, and there is, of course, the challenge of replicating its benefits on a larger scale. But there is broad acceptance and the sense of a new day dawning in the forest.

"This is meant to change hearts and minds," Pajutee said.

Among the hearts and minds that have been won are those of residents of Black Butte Ranch. The vast majority support the project, recognizing its forest health and wildfire management potential. But they've had to wait a long time for action to get started, while the partners in the project sought buy-in from the broadest possible cross-section of the public.

The project has been marked and flagged for about two years, and the view wasn't terribly appealing.

"The border adjacent to Black Butte Ranch was completed first so that homeowners won't have to look at paint and flagging anymore," Pajutee noted.

It's hard to say when and if the contractor will be able to get back to work

"You would think in the second week of January you'd be getting good conditions for winter logging," Steve Orange said. "That's not the case. So what do you do? You monitor and come back in when you've got conditions."

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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