Wednesday, June 26, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
LOGS: Towering slash
piles will be burned in
about 15 months
Continued from page 1
log decks and slash piles lay
alongside Highway 20 with a
cleaned-up forest surround-
ing it. The log decks stacked
high alongside the strategi-
cally placed slash piles are
now for sale and on auction
commission. On Tuesday,
June 25 in Bend, sealed bids
were to be opened for the sale
of the timber after a 10-day
advertisement was run. More
information on the timber
sale including maps and gen-
eral information regarding
the wood can be found on the
Forest Service government
website.
Reid told The Nugget that
the use of the herbicide had
no effect on the inner portion
of the wood.
<The concentration of the
herbicide is in the branches
and it is not in the heart-
wood,= Reid said. <We are
working with the Oregon
Department of Agriculture
in running analysis on the
heartwood.=
The wood in the selling
process was determined to be
only used for lumber 4 no
chipping or mulching of the
wood as that could poten-
tially spread trace amounts
of the herbicide back into the
ground.
<A warning did go out in
the prospectus as to what this
wood was cut down for, but
given that it will mostly be
used for lumber, there is no
risk to humans from it,= said
Reid.
The money from the tim-
ber sale returns back into the
treasury, and some of it will
be allotted to the betterment
of the area that was previ-
ously treated.
<The money we gain back
is not a 1:1 ratio in paying for
the project, it will return back
into various trusts and trea-
sury for other treatment proj-
ects and forest betterment,=
Reid explained. <It does pay
partially for the initial service
contract on the project so it
pays for parts of the project,
but not directly.=
Some of the first treat-
ments will be noxious weed
treatment.
“I am really proud of
the employees on their
work and efficiency
with this project ...
— Ian Reid
As for the massive slash
piles placed next to each log
deck, the plan is to burn them
on site.
There are around 10 piles,
one at each set of log decks.
The piles were strategically
placed so they could be
burned without causing too
much harm to the surround-
ing forest. Forest Service
crews plan to burn the piles
once they have been cured,
after they sit where they are
for about 15 months. The
plan is to let them dry out
over the summer and then
once winter hits with enough
moisture in the air and snow
on the ground, to light up the
massive piles.
<It is likely that there is
still trace amounts of the her-
bicide on the branches, and
as they sit there, it may seep
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into new seedlings but they
are placed at disturbed areas
anyways,= Reid said.
In regards to the effect of
burning the piles, the herbi-
cide has no effect on humans
and breathing the air is no
worse than breathing nor-
mal wood smoke from a pre-
scribed burn or wildfire; there
are no harmful effects, Reid
noted.
<The label on the herbi-
cide states that burning is an
allowable disposal method,=
he said.
The Forest Service plans
to keep working with ODA,
researchers at OSU and
Purdue University on analyz-
ing the effects on growth of
the seedlings in the affected
area. They are conducting
bio-chemical analysis and
are committed to finding the
residual risk.
<Our belief is if we keep
following the precautions of
the ODA that we will be able
to determine the effects and
further our research,= Reid
said. <I am really proud of
the employees on their work
and efficiency with this proj-
ect, and we plan to continue
working on cleaning up the
forest and seeing the further
effects the herbicide had on
the forest.=
13
Young dancers...
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
Sisters Dance Academy treated Sisters to their annual dance
recital on Saturday.
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