Visit to Garcia River Forest NOTES ON FTF TOUR OF THE GARCIA RIVER FOREST. January 29, 2018

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1 Visit to Garcia River Forest NOTES ON FTF TOUR OF THE GARCIA RIVER FOREST January 29, 2018 Participants: Juli Baker, Mike Nevard, David Skibbins, Jackie Baas Tour Leader: Scott Kelly, Timberland Manager, Garcia River Forest, The Conservation Fund STATISTICS: The Garcia River Forest comprises 74,000 acres of primarily Douglas Fir; it is very diverse. The terrain is steep, with dramatic changes in elevation. There are logging roads throughout the property. The Conservation Fund purchased this property to protect it from clearcutting. The purpose of harvesting timber and selling carbon credits is to pay for the purchase of that land. FIRE: We first toured the 2008 Granite THP, logged as a select cut in the wake of the lightningstrike fires that year. Mostly fire-damaged trees were taken out. Scott Kelly emphasized that redwoods are fire-resistant. Scott says there s no such thing as a fire-proof forest. Anything will burn, given the right conditions. You cannot make a forest fire-safe. Here on the Coast we don t manage for fire. This area burned due to lightning strikes, and it was not a priority for the fire departments who were saving residences. The interesting and unexpected thing is that that fire did not jump to the crowns of the trees but stayed in the underbrush. In the case of an inhabited forest, as at TSR, it is inefficient to try and treat the whole forest. The important thing is maintaining defensible space around dwellings for firefighters to access. The problem with attempting to maintain a forest for fire safety is that it s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge you have to do it all the time. Takes constant maintenance. Scott advised that if fire safety is the main concern, don t try to log for revenue. More practical for TSR, in Scott s opinion, would be a fire hazard reduction program. If we want to do something effective, he recommends eradicating or at least managing Bishop Pine. (He was skeptical that Bishop Pines protect the Redwoods from salt wind, as we have been told.) He said Bishop Pine can be marketed he claimed that even dying pines can be sold but he couldn t think of recent instances. FOREST MANAGEMENT: The Garcia River Forest is managed by select cutting to generate income through carbon sequestration and encourage the development of larger trees while protecting habitat.

2 Visit to Garcia River Forest What is the smallest acreage that might be harvested in a profitable select cut? Scott said 300 acres or more. The TSR CTPZ is just over 280 acres, which Scott knew because he had worked on the Travelers select cut in the early 1990s. To make enough to cover the cost of select cutting, Scott said that in his experience we d need to log the entire parcel in one year, with a fifteen-year return. We d want to time the return to the market. As we discussed the impact of the German South THP to the east of TSR, we asked about limiting logging to weekdays and business hours. Scott stated that any time you set limits on a contract for a logger for such things as time and direction of logging, it raises costs and reduces profit. The Garcia River Forest has no residents, so they can log in ways that minimize their costs. They do have another forest which is near human inhabitants, further north. Scott stated that logging is very loud and very disruptive, no matter what constraints you place on your contractors. They do have complaints from people who live near that other operation. Next we looked at an area where light selection logging had been done in 2007, and which will be logged again next year. Trees are marked for harvest based on need the ugly (broken or misshapen) trees go first, starting with diameter trees (nonmerchantable). They then harvest enough big trees to make money, selecting to allow for spacing of crowns in order to maximize lumber yield over time. They leave a minimum of four big trees per acre, and 4 habitat trees. Crookedly formed trees are better for habitat than straight trees; the height doesn t matter but the better habitat trees have broken crowns and provide cover. They leave plenty of scrubby trees: tan oaks over 20 diameter are good habitat. They don t cut any madrones, and sometimes manufacture snags by girdling. Finally, we looked at an area that had been clear cut 3-4 years ago to get rid of tan oak and plant redwood seedlings. In this area, they are trying to grow redwoods; they chose those over the more prolific tan oaks. Tan oaks are the first trees to fill in after any disturbance. They want to limit to about 10% tan oak. If the forest gets to 40% tan oak, it is non-productive for revenue. To log the tan oaks, they use imazapyr ( slash & squirt ), which kills them back. (We would not be allowed to use imazapyr at TSR because of potential damage to the watershed.) Slash is left on the ground to protect redwood seedlings from drying sunlight, deer and rabbits (see photos below). Deer don t like to browse over the slash, which gives the redwood plugs a chance to take hold. FOREST HEALTH : Scott believes that crown spacing could help prevent Sudden Oak Death, because SOD is airborne and can travel from crown to crown. There is not yet conclusive research on this. He confirmed David s assumption that chipping, etc., doesn t spread SOD. In the absence of massive die-off, it s best just to leave dead trees in the forest.

3 Visit to Garcia River Forest If there is a massive die-off, it s an opportunity to replant with species appropriate to the ecological resources. They don t try to prevent SOD, since they are selecting against tan oak trees in favor of conifers. EROSION: According to Scott, TSR has weird sandy soil. You can t keep it from eroding when it gets wet. You don t want compacted soil; you want the water to infiltrate rather than to run off carrying sediment. We discussed cable-yarding, used when you are logging on steep slopes but cannot take equipment onto the slope without creating a lot of erosion. Cable logging is best, but not possible at TSR because of the proximity of homes. Rubber-tired skidders are not good on wet soils as they compact it too much; they use track skidders instead. Scott showed us slash packing, which disperses the water on skid trails. This is piling cut limbs up to reduce the impact of water on the soils, and thus reduce erosion. It can be done on cleared areas where people do not walk, because you cannot walk on it. Treatment of logging roads (and trails) for erosion they use water bars (diagonal barriers across the roads) every 50 feet. It is very expensive to redo the roads after every logging disturbance. NOISE: There are no residences in or near the Garcia Forest. Some hiking. Scott said there is no getting around the fact that select cutting is loud and messy and requires repairs of the access roads. SMALL LOGGING WORLD! Scott Kelly told us that he had actually logged the CTPZ back in the day, when it belonged to Travellers. Once the FTF is ready to address the Central Forest, it might be worth inviting him down to give us a tour with his thoughts. Scott seemed very knowledgeable about forest conditions and history on the Mendonoma Coast.

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