Another blogger logger

Jen Pennington writes about becoming a sustainable forest owner on her blog, "Ecozome Journal."

Welcome to the club, Jen.

Burning land to stay ahead of wildfire threat

Where we removed trees from densely overstocked stands last summer, we now see spring grasses coming up as more light reaches the forest floor.

In some areas, though, the forest duff is so thick and compacted that the grass doesn't have a chance of penetrating it. The ground under the duff is moist and bare, but no light or seeds make it through.

This TV news story talks about prescribed burns (Rx fires). Northwest Management forester Brian Vrablick explains the process of burning to eliminate that thick carpet of fir needles and fine sticks.

It's scary to think about igniting that dry duff around fire-intolerant fir trees. The story doesn't talk about the prep work before the Rx fire, that of removing the flash fuels around the stems. If the ground fire is too hot it could kill some trees we selected to leave -- the biggest and healthiest of them all -- because the heat scorches the stems (trunks).

Totally natural fire ecology would eliminate the duff with fires every 10 years or so. Those same fires would eliminate the fir and leave an open stand of Ponderosa Pine.

We're not prepared to go that far (i.e., clearcut) to return to PP in 50 years. We have PP stands on half the property. And we're working hard to keep fire from doing any clearcutting for us.

Living with Forests in Wildfire Country - seminar 4/30/09

This program is taught by forest owners, so there will be ample information based on real life experiences. Sorry for the short notice. Phone included if you'd like to inquire about repeats.

On Thursday, April 30, 2009, at 7-9 PM, in Leavenworth WA, the Barn Beach Trust will present “Living with Forests in Wildfire Country,” a seminar to help people prepare for the approaching fire season. The seminar will take place in the Barn at Barn Beach Reserve, located at 347 Division Street.

With fire season coming, it’s a great time for forest landowners to learn what they can do to protect their property and give themselves peace of mind. Whether you are a forest land owner, or your home is located in the forest, or you just live in a community on the east side of the Cascades with forests nearby, it’s important to understand what it means to live with forests in wildfire country.

The seminar will be presented by Leavenworth area forest landowners Tom Davies and Ross Frank, both of whom have extensive forest land management experience and expertise.
Topics to be covered at the seminar include:
v Forest ecology
v Forest health
v The role of fire in forests
v How property owners can assess wildfire risks to their land and structures
v What property owners can do reduce these risks.

For more information, please contact Jeff Parsons, (509) 548-0181

Tom Davies and his wife, Cynthia Neely, own forested land near Leavenworth. Tom’s credentials include a Masters Degree in Forest Science and a Ph.D. in Biology, both from Yale University. He serves on the Leavenworth Neighbors Fire Education-Fuels Reduction steering committee and is actively working to restore his family’s 120-acre ponderosa pine forest. He is past-President of the Barn Beach Trust.

Ross Frank and his wife, Marianne, own Red-Tail Canyon Farm, a draft horse ranch and a registered tree farm. Ross is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources. He currently chairs the Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition and serves on the Board of Directors of the Barn Beach Trust. He is a past board member and chairperson of the Chelan County Conservation District.

NRCS EQIP forestry funding rates as of March 2009

Considering an Environmental Quality Incentive Program application for funding by USDA's NRCS, here's what NRCS offered.

Thinning $150/acre

Pruning $75/acre

Slash disposal (landowner's preferred method) $187.50/acre

Nesting structures (bird houses, bat boxes) $37.50 each

Wildlife habitat management (structures and plantings) $500 one-time payment

Pest management plan (a combination of documentation and field observations) $1,000 one-time payment

NRCS has well-defined standards for each practice available online. There are many other fundable practices for forest, land, fire and waterway care that I have not listed here.

Keywords: eqip equip sustainable stewardship

DNR FLEP cost share rates thru Sept 2009

Looking back at the 2008-09 Eastern Washington Forest Landowner Cost-Share Information and Application document, here's what DNR is paying on a cost-share basis.

 

(The dollar amounts represent the limits of their half, owners pay the rest)

 

Forest Stewardship Plan writing, $500 for 20-100 acres

 

Thinning $120 to $230/acre (higher rates apply for heavily overstocked stands)

 

Pruning $0.20 per foot pruned (100 trees per acre, 16' pruning, 10' bare stem, $120/acre)

 

Prescribed under-burn $150/acre

 

Slash disposal (piling, lop/scatter, shred) $350/acre

 

Here's the contact info to find out more or to apply:

 

 

Please contact the DNR Region Forest Stewardship Program Coordinator who serves the area where your land is located:

 

            For land in Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Lincoln, and Spokane counties:

·         Cliff Thresher, WA DNR, P.O. Box 190, 225 S. Silke Rd., Colville, WA  99114-0190. 

(509) 684-7474.  FAX: (509) 7484. cliff.thresher@dnr.wa.gov

 

 

For land in Chelan, Douglas, Kittitas, Yakima, Klickitat, Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield, Asotin,  Whitman, and eastern Skamania counties:

·         WA DNR, 713 E. Bowers Rd., Ellensburg, WA  98926-9341. (509) 925-8510.  FAX: (509) 925-8522.

 

Statewide Forest Stewardship Program Manager

·         Steve Gibbs, WA DNR, P.O. Box 47012, Olympia, WA 98504-7012.  (360) 902-1706.  FAX: (360) 902-1428.  steve.gibbs@dnr.wa.gov

 

 

Carbon trading for forest owners - Webinar

My family still owns 80 acres of our great-grandfather's homestead farm in east Texas. Last year we started the process of selling the carbon credits from that heavily wooded acreage.

 

Texas has been progressive in rolling out carbon programs that have been working in other states. (Yes, I used "Texas" and "progressive" in the same sentence.) Under the TX program we would receive payments in return for maintaining at least a certain number of trees per acre. We could harvest the excess during the contract, and at the end of the we'd no longer be bound (e.g., we could harvest, or sell more CO2 credits).

 

If this is something that interests you, this webinar might be worth watching:

 

http://www.forestrywebinar.net/webinars/carbon-trading-101

 

April 30, 2009 at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.

 

Sponsored by the Texas Forestry Assn.

 

 

EQIP and FLEP

I've had the opportunity to compare EQIP and FLEP funding programs for small landowners. Yesterday I walked the woods with a team of USDA foresters and wildlife biologists who authorize EQIP federal grants for sustainable forest management.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is run by NRCS, the Natural Resources Conservation Service of USDA. These guys drove down from Okanogan WA, then spent the better part of an afternoon touring our stands and explaining their grant program.

They say we're likely to be approved for a 5-year contract with grants to cover a variety of activities, including thinning, pruning, slash disposal, pest management and wildlife habitat. 

Meanwhile, we have time left on our Forest Land Enhancement Program (FLEP) grant issued by the WA DNR. We'll spend this summer doing work under that program. 

FLEP pays 50% of the cost of approved practices, up to a modest limit per acre.

EQIP is not a matching grant, the payment amount is fixed per practice, per acre.

For pre-commercial thinning, for example, FLEP pays us half of actual cost up to $220 (i.e., FLEP will pay up to $110) per acre. EQIP will pay actual cost up to $180 per acre. 

Both payment types are reported to the IRS as income and are taxable. Of course you'll have related expenses in excess of the income, unless you do the work yourself. Ask your accountant about a Schedule C or farm schedule on your Form 1040.

The two programs can be "stacked" for the same acreage. They have stops in place to prevent us from being reimbursed more than the cost of a practice -- which is unlikely in any event given the cost of this kind of work. (Using the above example, actual cost of thinning an acre can exceed $1,000 if the stand is dense.)

The key to stacking the programs is to submit costs to FLEP before you collect the EQIP payment. That means aligning the requirements -- for example, pruning the same acres in the same year under both programs. It takes some planning, but by submitting the full cost to FLEP first you avoid having DNR base a significantly reduced payment on your net cost after an EQIP reimbursement.

Program home pages:

Forestland Enhancement Program (FLEP)
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)

FPA/N expired

A milestone has passed. Our 2-year Forest Practices permit expired yesterday. We sold exactly 0 board feet of timber.

 

I admit, I resent the amount of time and money that went into getting that permit, only to see it expire unused. We couldn't have known then what was coming.

 

Timber prices continue to fall, fuel prices rising, local sawmill closed. For our small parcel a commercial sale is practically impossible, even though we're logging it ourselves.

 

 

Free firewood, bring log truck / jammer

UPDATE Fall '09: All wood for 2009 has been hauled off. We'll post here and Craigslist if/when more is available.


Last summer we pulled 2-3 log truck loads out of our woods in southern Chelan County WA.

It's mostly DF with PP mixed, various lengths, clean and decked.

That was just the wood we needed to get out of the way for falling and hauling our house logs. We'll bring out more this summer, and next, and...

NOTE - If you do not have the equipment* and manpower to remove (load and haul) at least 40 logs 22 feet long (roughly 5 tons) in a single trip, please do not inquire. You also must be able to designate us as named insured on your insurance/bond or otherwise indemnify us prior to bringing equipment onto the property.

* Due to bridge height constraints, a full-sized log loader cannot enter the canyon.

Advanced forest stewardship course, day 1: Taking stock

This first session was mostly administrivia and review of the Coached Planning course I took 2 years ago. I was reminded how much we covered back then, and how quickly 24 people can consume a big box of chocolate chip cookies. And I saw some familiar faces from the first course.

We did get into inventorying techniques. This is not the technique that a professional forester would use for appraisal or sale, as their statistical standards are much higher. It's a functional estimating technique. We learned about it in theory in class, and the next field trip will be a chance to practice it.

Five steps for creating a forest inventory:

1. Create a map. NRCS, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Live are potential sources.
2. Determine plot locations. The less opportunity for bias, the better. Typically 1/20th acre circle.
3. Locate plots in the field. If your spot is e.g. on a cliff, you might have to adjust.
4. Measure trees in the plots. This takes some tools, and some practice. Record the DBH, age, height, and count of trees in the plot area.
5. Plug the measurements into the computer.

It takes a minimum of 3 plots per stand (our parcel has two distinct stands) or 1 plot per 10 acres, whichever is greater. A 1/20th acre circle has a radius of 26.3 feet.

We spent much of the remaining time learning about converting map scales and the use of a compass, diameter tape, cruising stick, and clinometer.

We'll have a computer lab class in which we input and crunch the data.

Denis

My Advanced Forest Stewardship Series starts next week

Spring is here, the snow has receded from most of our property (still plenty of mud, though) and it's time to start work again. This weekend we get to pull the tarps off the equipment, fix a flat on the tractor, and oil up the chainsaws. The trees are safe for a little while longer.

 

Last summer we cut many trees, most notably 120 large fir trees we'll use for building a house. This summer we tackle the heavily overstocked stands to reduce the risk of fire and infestation.

 

That's why I'm excited to be taking another course in forest stewardship from WSU Extension. This one builds on the 2007 "Coached Planning" course we took. The "Advanced Forest Stewardship" course runs from April into June, with weekly classroom lectures and 2 field trips.

 

We completed our Forest Land Stewardship Plan a few years ago and got it signed off by the WA Department of Natural Resources. The plan was a prerequisite for grant funds we received from DNR. The "Coached Planning" course helped us better understand the detail behind each part of the plan. The "Advanced" course will deepen our knowledge of forest practices.

 

Here's the syllabus for the advanced course:

 

Apr. 13 Introduction and Review (Kevin Zobrist, WSU)

Introduction to Forest Inventory (Zobrist)

Apr 18 Field Day #1 (Zobrist/Keller)

Apr. 20 LMS Lab 1 (Zobrist)

Apr 27 Advanced Silviculture and Hardwood Management (Zobrist)

May 4 Forest Finance (Zobrist)

Log markets/grades/sorts (Will Miller, Miller Shingle)

May 11 LMS Lab 2

May 18 Logging equipment and Forest Roads (Frank Greulich, UW College of

Forest Resources)

May 25 LMS Lab 3 (Zobrist)

June 1 Federal Timber Taxes (Chuck Lorenz, IRS - retired)

State Timber Taxes (Chris Westwood, DOR)

June 8 Managing a Timber Sale (John Keller, DNR; Ron Munro, Consultant)

June (TBD) Field Day #2 (TBD)

 

Program Coordinator: Kevin Zobrist 425-357-6017 or kzobrist@wsu.edu