PACK 2 March 10, 1989
Warm Springs, Oregon
Spilyay Tymoo
Changing resources require intensive management Continued from page 1
timber on 322.000 acres ol com
mercial forest. While the area and
volume increased by about half,
about 1. 9 billion board feet had
been cut and removed during that
period.
The increase in the volume of
standing timber is primarily due to
the reduction of losses and the
increases in growth in the forest.
The Warm Springs forest can con
tinue to provide income and em
ployment, as well as other benefits,
forever.
Changes in log size
Past management of the timber
resources has increased the volume
of timber but it has also changed
the appearance of the forest. One
result of (hat change, as on all
forests in the Pacific Northwest,
has been smaller trees. 1 he Bureau
now requires timber purchasers.
WSFP1 in this case, to pay for all
the sound material in trees down to
a six-inch top. Small logs come not
only from small trees, they also
come from large ones. Most trees,
whether they are five feet in diame
ter at the ground or 1 2 inches, will
have a six-inch top.
Between 1940 and 1949, the aver
age 16-foot long log that came out
of the woods on the reservation
had a diameter of 20 inches at the
small end. By 1980, that average
log had a diameter of only 14
inches at the small end. Forestry
forecasts that the average 16-foot
log will be only nine-and-one-half
inches in diameter at the small end
during the period from 1990 to
1999. In fact, so many small logs
are coming out of the woods that it
has become a major problem to
WSFPI, as the accompanying story
explains.
New forest planning effort
In 1987, the Tribal Council
adopted resolution 7410. This ac
tion recognized concerns of tribal
members that more effort was
needed to protect and improve the
quality and quanity of water, the
number of deer, elk and fish, and
the amount of cultural food plants
and other resources. In Resolution
7410 the Council directed that the
next forest management plan be
based on a joint analysis of all nat
ural resources within the forest
area of the reservation by the
Branch of Forestry and the Depart
ment of Natural Resources with
input from the Culture and Herit
age Department.
That resolution, together with a
recent BIA policy for the develop
ment of integrated resource
management plans on all reserva
tions, has led to the present plan
ning effort.
, t
i
! ' ' r t .
: ! ; ,V
.CO'-;, V-
7' -
. .... . .
-J s.
,. ,. .j v , . i-
Called the Integrated Resource
Management Plan, or IRMP, the
plan will be based on the present
condition and needs for improve
ment of all natural rcsrouccs within
each major watershed on the reser
vation, including the McQuinn
Strip. The integrated resource plan
ning team is divided into working
groups, each with a chairperson.
Each group is responsible for col
lecting and analyzing data for a
particular forest resource.
The working groups and chair
persons are: Culture and Heritage,
Dan Mattson; Fish, Mark Fritsch;
Range and Soils, Ross Racine;
Recreation and Rural Housing, Dale
Parker; Timber, Dale Sarkkinen;
Water, Deepak Sehgal; and Wild
life, Terry Luther.
By analyzing the information by
watershed all the land draining
into the stream instead of for the
reservation as a whole, better infor
mation will be available than has
been used in the past. More effec
tive prescriptions for managing all
resources will be possible. More
flexibility can be used in identify
ing areas within the forest where
priority needs to be placed on pro
duction of specific resources.
According to Bill Donaghu, BIA
Forest manager, the final recom
mendation on the annual available
timber harvest will be made jointly
by all of the technicians, based on
what needs to be done to achieve a
desired production of all resources
in the forest.
Concerns have been expressed
that the needs of WSFPI deter
mine the annual cut. Donaghu said,
"The calculation of the annual cut
is based on our professional assess
ment of resource information. The
annual cut is not determined on the
basis of how much timber the mill
needs."
Bob Macy, WSFPI General
Manager, agrees. "The BIA, as
trustee, and the Tribal Council, tell
us how much timbVr we can cut.
Our job is to process that volume
as efficiently as we can."
During devlcopment of the plan,
the team will hold a series of public
meetings. In the first, planned for
next fall, the team will share infor
mation they have gathered with the
tribal public. In the spring of 1990,
the team will again meet with tribal
members to get their input on
alternatives the team has proposed
for managing the resources.
The final report and recommen
dations are due to the Tribal Coun
cil and the Superintendent before
the end of 1990. A series of stories
in Spilyay will keep tribal members
up to date on the progress of the
planning and on the planning pro
cess itself.
What will the forest look like?
What the forest will look like in
coming years is of concern to many
tribal members. The term "tree
farm" has often been used to des
cribe the forest of the future. If
"tree farm" means that the land
owner (the Tribes) manages the
land to get the most desirable mix
of various crops (timber, water,
fish, wildlife, grazing, food plants),
then it is a good term to use. The
Warm Springs forest of the future,
however, will not look like a tree
farm that has row upon row of
even-sized trees, like Christmas
trees. The forest of the future will
look different in different places
and at different times.
For example, streamside protec
tion areas will be maintained to
improve and protect the stability of
channels and the quality and quan
tity of water that is produced. Fish
are primarily dependent on these
factors. Protection of streamsides
docs not necessarily mean no log
ging. More often it means those
areas will be logged less frequently,
removing less of the existing
volumes.
The forest will look different in
those areas that need to be man
aged to provide thermal cover for
deer and elk. Thermal cover, which
provides protection from extreme
temperatures, ideally is found in
timber that is at least 40 feet tall
with some shorter trees mixed in.
As the larger trees mature and are
cut, other areas will be designated
to provide this important element
of big game habitat.
Timber production will receive
priority on other areas. Some of
those may be suitable for growing
certain sizes and quality of trees to
be used for products that have a,
higher value. " "
Additional diversity will be pro
vided in the Conditional Use Areas
set aside by the Tribal Council
where natural biological processes
will continue with little or nq inter
ference by man. Examples of these
are the Mt. Jefferson area and the
High Lakes recreation areas.
Through careful attention to the
desires of tribal members, the Inte
grated Resource Management Plan
can provide the benefits from the
forest that are valued by most tri
bal members.
Spilyay Tymoo
Staff Members'
MANAGING EDITOR Sid Miller
ASISTANT EDITOR Donna Behrend
PHOTO SPECIALISTWRITER Marsha Shewczyk
REPORTERPHOTOGRAPHER INTERN Saphronia Coochise
FOUNDED IN MARCH, 1976
Spilyay Tymoo is published by-weekly by the Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs. Ourofficesare located in the basement of the Old Girls
Dorm at 1115 Wasco Street. Any written materials to Spilyay Tymoo
should be addressed to:
Spilyay Tymoo, PO Box 870, Warm Springs, Oregon 97761
PHONE:
(503)553-1654 or (503)553-1 161, extensions 274. 285. 321 or 286
Annual Subscription Rates:
Within the U.S.-S9 00
Outside the U.S. $15.00
Looking to the future
Small-log mill gains approval com
nnr wt.-t 't sn r A r t a i- n '. o I I - CitU U '. .4 '. t A tUn( It . I. r lUrAimk fhp IICA rf m 1 rll I nP irtVPfmPnt
. from page 1
Construction and operational
financing is expected to be via
WSFPI reserves and up toil I mil
lion in loans to WSFPI from a
commercial bank. Low interest,
tax-free loans are being sought.
Profits from the new facility are
expected to pay for the facility in
less than seven years.
Total employment at the mill is
not expected to be affected by these
changes. Some shifting of workers
from the existing stud mill and
large-log mill to the new facility,
however, will be necessary. It is
expected that harvesting the in
creasing supply of small timber w ill
require more employment in the
woods. Smith has indicated that it
may be possible to produce addi
tional revenue and employment by
further remanufacturing lumber
from the new mill facility.
State-of-the-art equipment will
be used in the new facility. Initial
sawing of logs will be done with an
"end-dogging log feed"system. This
system will use video scanning and
computer analysis to position both
the log and band mills to obtain
maximum lumber and value re
covery from each log. Computer
assisted equipment will then trim
boards to width and length and
automatically sort the lumber.
The mill will still be labor inten
sive through the use of machine
operators to saw material with
defects that cannot be detected by
computers. Manual labor will also
be used to handle complex lumber
sorts required by the wide variety
of high-value products.
There are four major reasons
that the mill task force recom
mended the modifications to the
mill. First, the existing mill is los
ing money because it is not able to
process the current supply of small
logs effeciently. Secondly, the new
facility will provide a good finan
cial return with a relatively low
investment. Thirdly, the produc
tion capacity of the new facility will
be well suited to the current Warm
Springs timber supply. It could
also operate economically if there
were moderate upward or down
ward revisions in the log supply.
Finally, this mill has the flexibil-.
ity to produce a wide variety of
high-v alue products in both domes
tic and export sizes. This provides
the ability to shift production with
market opportunities and to add
remanufacturing facilities which
could produce additional revenue
and employment.