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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2017)
4 Wednesday, October 11, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon City, schools working through tree thinning By Sue Stafford Correspondent The Urban Forestry Board reluctantly reached a consen- sus at their October 9 meeting, following a tour of the Sisters School District property directly behind Reed Stadium, where the district wants to remove more trees. Following a thinning project at the middle school which City staff and the UFB thought exceeded a verbal agreement, the City issued a stop work order to the district until all parties involved had a chance to meet and review proposed further thinning. At the beginning of the UFB meeting, Dan Galecki, City Forester, reported that he thought too many trees had been removed. “I think the trees were thinned out more aggressively than my scope and what we talked about,” he said. Following Monday’s meet- ing there is a quantitative measure that will help deter- mine the appropriate num- ber of trees to be removed. A reloscope is a tool that makes it possible to survey a stand of timber to determine a cer- tain basal area of trees, which represents the surface area of trees in an area or square feet per acre. Industry standard indicates that a basal area of 200 would generally be thinned down to 80. On the other hand, pre- scriptive thinning usually means removing a particular percentage of trees in a stand, such as 25 or 30 percent, but can be more subjective than using the reloscope. Trees in the stand currently at issue fall into two cat- egories: eight inches or less in diameter and over eight inches. Dave Vitelle of Bear Mountain Fire had already marked the over-eight inch trees he planned to remove with lime-green plastic tape. During the most recent tour, Galecki and the UFB surveyed the designated trees over eight inches, with Galecki concur- ring with most of the trees slated for removal, although there were some he did not agree should be removed. Regarding the smaller trees, it is up to the school dis- trict to determine how many to remove, although Galecki urged a conservative approach to guarantee a mixed-age forest. Some of the UFB members were hesitant to approve lift- ing the stop work order with- out direct supervision of the logging process, while oth- ers didn’t think they had the jurisdiction to do that. They Brand 33 is Closed For the Season We will be available for special events and holiday parties. Check in at www.asplenlakes.com or the Brand 33 Facebook page for upcoming activities. 541-549-3663 decided that Community Development Director Patrick Davenport and Public Works Director Paul Bertagna would count the number of larger trees scheduled for removal before lifting the stop work order. During the tree removal process, Davenport and other staff will be checking on the removals on a daily basis. UFB chairman Dave Moyer will also be making regular spot checks. Vitelle told the UFB that he will video the tree removals. The role of the UFB con- cerning trees on property not belonging to the City is not clearly defined. Developers are required to submit tree plans for new subdivisions and the City can urge them to not remove too many trees, and developers gener- ally abide by those recom- mendations. However, the UFB doesn’t really have jurisdiction over the school district property. The City’s clear jurisdiction lies with trees on all City property and rights-of-way. Ryan Stock, Operations Director for the school dis- trict, told the UFB they plan to plant fescue, brush, and some young ponderosa with ample open space in the areas being thinned. Stock said there might be plans for the school science club to be involved with an environmental project in the thinned tree stands at the mid- dle school. He would like to see an arboretum of natural species at one of the schools. The logs are currently decked on high school prop- erty behind Sisters Park & Recreation District. Plans are in the works, according to Stock, to donate some of the wood to organizations like Family Access Network to provide firewood for low- income families, although that plan is not yet in place. Plans for the juniper timber include letting it dry out, mill- ing it, and having it available for the high school woodshop students. Vitelle can chip up some of the timber for use on school trails. Various school clubs and classes will have access to the timber for possible fun- draising activities. Stock expressed concern that Vitelle is not receiving recognition for the contribu- tion he is making to create safer school environments at no cost. Stock estimates that $120,000 worth of work has been donated to the school district. Vitelle has provided $6,500 worth of tree trim- ming to the City, according to Stock. Thinning work will resume once the stop work order is lifted by the City. 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