Blue Mountains Natural Resources Institute

Timber Harvesting Systems for Forest Health

This seminar was broadcast live via the Eastern Oregon State College Ed-Net facility on April 11, 18, 25, 1996.

Session One:

John Henshaw, Past Acting manager, BMNRI, and Jimmy Roberts, Wallowa Valley District Ranger. Careful timber harvest can be used for improving forest health, a condition in which productivity and ecological diversity are resilient to disturbance and are sustainable in the long term. The primary tool for meeting desired forest conditions is vegetation manipulation: planting, removing, or redistributing. The key to successfully using timber harvest as a forest health tool is planning; attention is given to what is left on site rather than what is removed. We need to choose options that will balance ecological issues (soil compaction and disturbance, vegetation damage), economic issues (current market for material removed, costs of various removal methods), and social issues (values and needs).

Bruce Hartsough, Professor at University of California, Davis, CA, discusses many of the variables in choosing a harvest system. The volume per piece and volume per acre as well as the topography and available roads all affect the choices of felling, yarding, bucking, loading, trucking, and milling methods.

Session Two:

Loren Kellogg, Oregon State University Professor of Forest Engineering, describes the Deerhorn Timber Sale study results. The intent of the harvest was to reduce fuels and thin timber in an area on Louisiana-Pacific land with severe insect damage. Economics and effectiveness of cable yarding in combination with a single-grip harvester were studied.

Jim McIver, Research Coordinator, BMNRI, discusses the Limber Jim project, which will build on knowledge from the Deerhorn study and will compare harvest methods for effectiveness of treatment, economic feasibility, and ecological effects. There will also be a study component that will compare public acceptance of fuel reduction by thinning with prescribed fire.

Session Three:
Lynn Breese, Co-Owner Dixie Meadow Company, describes the intensive management of their land that includes clipping of juniper seedlings, and selective pine harvesting following their plan to "pay the bills and leave the land better off."

Tom Glassford owns a 50-acre woodlot near Enterprise, and he discusses how he uses pruning and thinning to reduce fuels, and emphasizes selection harvest rather than production. He has modified equipment to do his own loading and hauling.

Harold Freels, High Country Logging, describes low-impact skidding using teams of horses. Horses cause little soil compaction or disturbance, and can skid almost any time of the year—even in a wet spring.

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