Storm Part 2

admin December 14, 2019December 14, 2019 logging, Lone Rock Resources, RealOregon

In part 1, you were reminded of last February’s storm that damaged a lot of infrastructure in the lower Willamette Valley. further south into the Rogue Valley and down into California. Timber grounds were impacted with the need to remove damaged, dead and dying trees before infestation issues and an overabundance of fuel increased fire danger from a concern to an inferno. Here is part 2…

It took time to get the cities of the corridor between the Coast Range on the west and the Cascades on the east back up and running after the storm scoured out. It took a couple of days before the fallen trees that surrounded the stuck passenger train had a crew make it to the tracks to clear the tangle of snow, ice and trees. Snowcats finally made it past the jammed and shut down Interstate 5 Freeway to unload from the trucks hauling them and got to work scaling the mountain peaks where vital communication towers were located in order for power to be reconnected. The city dug out of the heavy and now frozen-solid snow. It took time before the forest could be evaluated as to the extent of damage.

clear cut and standing timber stands — Tract below stump has been clear cut and the yarder is drawing the fallen trees from this canyon

Throughout the spring and summer, logging plans changed in this area of Oregon. Scheduled harvests were put on hold while damage control took precedent. Those stands that had planned pre-commercial thinning (cutting out the too-thick, small stands before crowding slows growing pace usually under 20 years old), commercial thinning (cutting in older trees to free up more canopy space and removing the thinned trees for small logs or pulp products, 25-35 year old stand) or harvesting tracts that were ready for harvest (older than 45 years) were put on shelved until damaged areas were addressed.

View of clear cut from summer operations with replanted sections of various ages on each side, clearcut is ready to be replanted

Since then, timber companies have been cleaning up areas as quickly as possible to capture the wood before infestation and rot diminish value and creates a forest full of fuel for devastating fires. The cleanup is not completed and will need to continue well into the next year and possibly longer, but the clock is ticking and every day the fiber is left in the woods the less value there will be in each stick.

REALOregon class watching logs drawn from canyon — Half of the REALOregon class watching the choker setters in the woods while other half is up the hill in the landing

The REALOregon class was able to visit an active logging site being run by Lone Rock Resources. Lone Rock owns and manages 130,000 acres of land that vary in large and small disjointed parcels throughout the wide range from Roseburg to Medford to the Coast. Their cleanup of the forest is a massive undertaking and they are attacking the issue with several crews scattered in varying locations.

Yarder sitting in landing and tethered to a large dozer and several stumps — Yarder bringing tree (full length) from the forest to the landing. The carriage is visible on the cable above the tree coming into the landing.

Most people don’t get the chance to see a logging operation this close. Even though I have spent some time in the woods, it was a thrill to climb the tracks and the ladder up to the cab of the yarder. To feel the power of the tower as logs were brought to the high landing from across the canyon via chokers attached to the main line, I watched the carriage (the yellow box that holds the chokers) disappear from view from the yarder operator, with only the beeps of the horn from the crew in the canyon giving the operator the cues needed to get the logs from the forest to the landing. Trust is key to this part of the process to keep everyone safe and logs coming at a quick pace into the landing area.

Yellow yarder, red and white processor in landing — The big yellow yarder on the left with the white and red processor on the right working in tandem to get trees to the landing and made into lengths for hauling

The processor sitting next to the yarder picked up full length trees, measured, cut and stacked logs into appropriate piles with efficient precision to get them ready for the log trucks to come into the landing to haul to the mills.

Roads are carefully monitored so logs are not dragged while vehicles are nearby — Roads are monitored so traffic does not impede the process of getting the trees to the landing

Standing upon a windy ridge, the class had a 360 degree view of the overall vista. Large tracts of the forest have been harvested with clear cut procedures because of the amount of damage and the replanting has already begun for the next generation of wood to begin the growing process. Many areas could be seen that had various ages of stands from cuts that were done fairly recently in the past and some that were nearing harvest. Most interestingly, we saw the tracts that had not yet been started on the cleanup efforts. Those areas are strewn with dead and dying trees. It was easy to see why Lone Rock and other timber companies are rushed to put the forest back into healthy production.

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