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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 2018)
april5 2018 VERNONIA’S volume12 issue7 free reflecting the spirit of our community Stub Stewart Logging Project Thins Trees Project utilizes helicopters to reduce damage to trails and infrastructure By Scott Laird Recent visitors to L.L. Stub Stewart State Park, lo- cated about 10 miles south of Vernonia on Highway 47, may have noticed something unusual happening in the park this win- ter and early spring. A logging operation, utilizing helicopters owned by Sunset Helicopters NW out of Reno, Nevada, has been working on a large thin- ning project designed to create a more natural forest ecosys- tem. The project, which has now been ongoing for several months, was undertaken to thin trees throughout the park that were originally planted close together when the property was managed as an industrial tree farm. The park mostly contains Douglas fir with a small number of other species mixed in. The thinning project initially used tree cutters on the ground to fall trees which were then lifted out by helicopter to a landing where they were limbed and then transported by truck to a processing area. The project also calls for use of an innovative new piece of equipment, an Aerial Tree Harvester, which utilizes a dangling harvester head from the helicopter and a camera that allows the pilot to navigate to each tree, grab the tree at the top and bottom, and then cut and lift the trees. “This technique was initially appealing to me be- cause, not only are we not get- ting ground disturbance from traditional ground based log- ging equipment that comes through and skids trees, now we’re not even getting any po- tential damage to surrounding residual trees from the felling,” says Nick Morris, a forester with Oregon Parks and Rec- reation Department (OPRD). “Going straight up and out with the trees is an added bonus for us.” The new technology has not been used yet at Stub Stewart Park, but Morris says the project will continue until May 31, and that he expects to see it in operation sometime this spring. For Morris, introducing this new timber harvesting tech- nique was a little bit risky, yet also intriguing. “Sunset Heli- copters have done some smaller scale projects and they showed me videos of some of their op- erations, but they haven’t done anything on an industrial level like this before,” explained Morris. “I’ve been somewhat skeptical, but from my point of view, if it works, we’ve got something new we can utilize” Morris, who has worked for OPRD for three years, is one of two foresters that cover the entire Oregon State Park system. Prior to join- ing OPRD Morris worked with Oregon Department of Forestry for 10 years. An Oregon na- tive originally from Clatskanie, Morris graduated from the Uni- versity of Montana. In 2006, when OPRD acquired the property where Stub Stewart Park is located, much of that area was timber industry land and was densely planted after an initial clear cut. “Most of the stands here that we’re working with are between 15 and 45 years old,” inside 8 laika entertainment at the library 9 8th grade projects 10 vhs spring sports said Morris. “They would have planted it densely like this with the goal of coming back in 30 to 50 years and then clear cutting it again.” “That doesn’t really meet the goals that OPRD has for forest management,” adds Morris. “We generally man- age for older forest structures throughout the state, so our goal is to come in here and thin it out to a density that will push the stands into an older forest struc- ture without having too much mortality in the meantime.” The Stub Stewart proj- ect will thin trees in 12 separate units totaling 560 acres within the park boundaries, and will remove 1.8 million board feet, 1,500 tons of chip wood, and 9,000 tons of slash material. The project got off to a slow start because of winter weather and has been running behind schedule. Initial work was con- centrated in Unit 5 of the park around the Dairy Creek Camp West Loop. “We’re trying to get this area done before we get too many campers coming in and wanting to use these areas,” said Morris. Chris Gerdes is the new Park Manager at Stub Stewart as of February. Gerdes said the early stages of the project re- quired the closure of the Dairy Creek West campground, one of two RV camp loops in the park, during weekdays while the heli- copters were operating; the park was open during the weekends. Walk-in camping, horse camp- ing, and access to the Hilltop Day-Use Area have also been restricted. “We wanted to limit the volume of visitors to reduce the visitor versus logging oper- ation interactions,” said Gerdes. “We didn’t want people on the trails in order to reduce the probability of any negative im- pact.” Starting in March, more of the Park was opened to visitors, although some areas remained closed. Gerdes says Stub Stew- art continues to see growth in use because of the variety of amenities available to park visi- tors. Stub Stewart offers full hook-up RV, tent, and walk-in camping sites, along with cab- ins for overnight stays; picnic shelter, day-use, and meeting facilities; hiking trails, horse trails and horse camping fa- cilities; a very popular disc golf course; and an ever expanding downhill mountain bike area. Gerdes says in 2016 the trails and day-use areas had 200,000 visitors. Morris said he initial- ly planned to just thin an area that runs through the center of the park, with about 60-70 per- cent of the work being done as ground based operations, with the rest of the work being done by cable logging in the steeper sections. “I took that proposal to a previous Park Manager, the Regional State Park Manager, and my supervisor,” explains continued on page 7 Sustainable Forest Practices Presentation with Peter Hayes of Hyla Woods Oregon’s once magnificent and productive forests and related communities continue to be diminished by intertwined economic, cultural, and political factors. How and why did this happen and why does it continue? How are forward-looking owners, foresters, millers, designers, policy makers, advocates, and community members working together to develop and test new models of forestry and forest economics that regenerate forests and sustain people? As a fifth generation forest owner and Oregonian, Peter Hayes will share lessons he is learning from hands-on experimentation in applying examples from the past and analysis of the present to the challenge of prospecting for positive pathways into the future. Hayes will share his experiences on April 26 at 6:00 pm at Vernonia Springs, 54658 Nehalem Hwy. S, Vernonia. Peter Hayes and his family own and care for working forests in the northern Oregon Coast. Their restoration forestry business, Hyla Woods, experiments with models of forestry and grower-consumer partnerships that lead to enriched forests and sustained people. The Hyla Woods forests are in the Nehalem and Tualatin watersheds. Since first settling on the Clatsop Plains in the 1840s, the family has been active in trying to shape a culture that is as wonderful as this landscape. Peter’s recent involvements include serving on the Oregon Board of Forestry and leadership of the Build Local Alliance.
