Fall Colors in North Central Washington

This time of year is magical. The berry bushes and slide alder on Stevens Pass, 2000 feet higher than our property, are bright red and orange. The big-leaf maples on our place range from green to full-on gold. Aspens haven't turned, but there is that promise in their color when the sun hits them just right in the breeze. The winding road to our property is lined (and sometimes covered) with fallen colors.

Big-leaf maple by our driveway.

Brush across US2 from Yodelin on Stevens Pass WA.

Tripp Canyon Fire, Cashmere WA

Could this be it? We wonder each time a fire breaks out near our property. This fire is within 3 miles of our property, and upwind. The last two have been even closer.

We're not ready -- we won't be, for another 3 or 4 years of thinning and pruning. We could lose everything, even after all of our work to make our property less susceptible to a devastating crown fire.

Tripp Canyon fire about 1/2 hour after it started today.

The Tripp Canyon fire began at about 11 a.m. today (10/11/09, see updates below) when a debris-pile burn at a home got out of control. I drove out US Highway 2 at about 11:30 to see what the smoke was about. It was a thick brown column of smoke typical of a hot forest fire, but it looked very small. Fire trucks passed, headed that way. The heliport in Cashmere was empty of their large, fire-fighting choppers.

I've wondered, lately, what goes into setting the Industrial Fire Precaution Level. For the past month the IFPL has been I, its lowest danger level. Any type of logging activity is permitted, and there is no burn ban. But the ground is dry, dry, dry. There has been precious little rain. Dry leaves are falling, and days are increasingly windy. This is when man-made fires get away from people.

Tripp Canyon fire location on Sky Meadows Road near Cashmere WA. (Google Maps)

By 2:00 the smoke had turned white, and looked about the same size, so I breathed a sigh of relief assuming it was under control. Then a friend called my mobile at 5:30 to say the neighboring Brisky Canyon was under an evacuation advisory. Smoke hung over Blewett Pass at sunset, and the air smelled of wood smoke.

As of 7:45 pm, it reportedly was still actively burning in brush and timber. About 50 firefighters were working the fire this afternoon. Three helicopters dropped water on the blaze.

The rocky, dry grass and brushlands around Cashmere quickly transition to dense forests of fir and pine as you go west -- the direction of the wind on Sunday. ([more photos] Wenatchee World photo by Kathryn Stevens.)

The Sheriff's Office told reporters the cause of this fire (a burning debris pile) is being investigated by DNR officials -- "but the fire appears to have been legal since the county-wide, open-burning ban was lifted earlier this month."

I must have burned a hundred large piles of debris just in the past 7 years, and I would not dare light a pile until there's snow on the ground. "Fuels and dryness are a huge indication that we’re going to have fire season until we get some snow," a Sheriff's Office spokesperson cautioned last Monday, less than a week before this fire.

Why can't people wait to burn their leaves and debris after the fall rains drench everything? It's only a week or two away. Folks here complain about burn bans. Today is evidence that, in the absence of rules and fines, a few people will not exercise common sense.

Fire status

SUNDAY -- The local newspaper says the fire is burning on state Department of Natural Resources land. Firefighters from Cashmere, Dryden, Monitor, Peshastin, Entiat and the Department of Natural Resources responded to the fire. The Chelan County Sheriff's office says about 135 firefighters from multiple agencies will be assigned to the fire starting early Monday, and the three helicopters will be back dropping water. DNR was not quoted in the update. A local radio report said the fire was at 100 acres and still uncontained at the end of the day.

MONDAY  -- Spread from 300 acres this morning to 400 acres this evening. Evacuation advisories have not changed for 30+ families; no one has been evacuated, and roads are open. DNR blog post offers limited info. Local news says crews are hoping that snow and rain forecast for this evening and Tuesday will help contain the fire. On the other hand, if winds shift, the fire could rush toward homes -- including ours.

TUESDAY -- 450 acres/10% contained this morning with "minimal fire activity." Calm winds and a cool night helped, but firefighters still haven't got the fire under control. Local news reports said officials were hoping snow would. Chance of light snow was in the forecast for this morning, but didn't materialize. By mid-day the fire grew to 525 acres/60% contained. This evening, officials assured residents that the evacuation advisory will be downgraded by dawn tomorrow if mop-up progresses at its current pace.

WEDNESDAY -- Snow. The fire is no longer a threat, firefighters are going home, and the fire starter has been acquitted. The fire charred 525 acres, endangered 28 families' homes, cost thousands in helicopter time, and brought in 180 firefighters from all over the state. The Sheriff's Office has acted swiftly to exonerate the individual whose carelessness started the fire: “It looks like the homeowner did everything right.”

Well, maybe not everything.

ATFS Certified Sustainable Forest

We received the certificate today for our certified sustainble forest. The American Tree Farm System certification is the central Washington companion to FSC (popular in western WA).

The forest has been managed according to ATFS standards for the past 8 years, and we got our "Sustainble Forest" sign a few years ago. It was not until a couple of years ago that we learned how easily we could attain certification for our wood products. The process took a while, since those who needed to sign the paperwork had moved on to other jobs. But the paperwork evenually went through, and we got a certificate and letter in today's mail.

We'll receive an ATFS sign, intended to accompany the Sustainable Forest sign, in a few weeks.

When you buy wood or paper with a "FSC" or "ATFS" symbol, it means the wood that it came from was farmed without undue harm to the Earth it came from. ATFS certifies that any wood products that are obtained from our land are grown and harvested in a sustainable way. We would give a copy of our certificate to a sawmill or pulp mill, and they would pass along the certificates with the lumber or pulp goods they produce.

Yarding & Skidding Logs, High-Volume Style

We're making good progress getting logs out of the woods this month. Our neighbor Curt came over to help with skidding, which means either setting choker or running the winch while I hook logs. He loaded his small trailer to capacity with firewood logs a couple of times. He heats with wood, and isn't particular about the species, diameter, or straightness of the logs he uses. Unfortunately the trailer doesn't hold very much weight.

Shaun Brender also came by with his friend Zak to check out the "new" logging winch. Before we got the winch, Shaun had offered to dozer-skid logs for a small fee plus the wood. Shaun ran down our steepest slope with the choker and line about a dozen times within an hour and a half. We just kept winching until we had 15 logs piled up at the roadside.

Collecting so many logs in one location actually complicated the process of skidding them to the landing. We would have preferred to skid tree-length logs and buck them at the landing. But the roadside pile made it necessary to buck logs in place and skid shorter logs to the deck. Luckily, the skid distance was short.

One tough log
Curt and I tackled one more log before dark, a big fir that fell downhill and straddled the bottom of the draw. Its butt was stuck into the hillside and lodged below its own stump. It took us about 45 minutes, but we got the full-length log out.

We used a block on the log with stationary anchor points to double the winching power. Once we got the log moving uphill, we had to add another block. The photo shows the setup, which gives us 3X the 6,000 lb power of the winch. The log wouldn't budge without a block, and hardly moved with one block, but slid like butter with two blocks. That's the power of a block and tackle.

Winch and two snatch blocks on a log.

Close-up of the log end. Choker at left, winch cable at right.

Winch operator's perspective.

More about Block & Tackle:
- Good luck understanding the physics professor version at Wikipedia.
- "How Stuff Works" was once a great resource, but they've gotten desperate with the advertising.

The next day, Linda and I skidded another dozen logs in 2 hours. That includes skidding them a short distance to the landing, bucking and decking them. I hooked logs on the steep slope, and she ran the winch. Linda endured all of my previous experiments with winches and other methods of yarding logs. After watching a few logs effortlessly ascend the wall of the ravine toward her, she declared the new winch the best $2k we've spent.

Dwarf Mistletoe on Ponderosa Pine

Dwarf Mistletoe -- Arceuthobium -- is one of the parasites we deal with on our Ponderosa Pine stands. I found this specimen while pruning some young pines last July. Note how the limb is swollen and contorted under the mistletoe infection.

Dwarf mistletoe has seeds, stems, flowers, and roots like other plants, but it depends on its host for water and nutrients. All major conifer species are infected by a mistletoe species specific to that confier (Douglas fir dwarf mistletoe lives only on Douglas fir) although Larch dwarf mistletoe sometimes infects other trees.

This mistletoe is showy, but some are quite small. You're more likely to identify mistletoe by looking at the tree from a distance. The presence of "witches'’ brooms" (abnormal branch clumping) is a fairly certain sign of mistletoe. Mistletoe infects nearby trees, and can kill younger understory trees. A large ponderosa pine mistletoe plant can spread its seeds up to 50 feet.

Unfortunately, thinning can exascerbate mistletoe growth. Shady, overcrowded stands deprive mistletoe of light and water. Cutting trees helps the remaining trees in many ways, but it also leads to a mistletoe growth spurt. Mistletoe might not kill the trees, but it weakens them and makes them susceptible to other parasites, such as bark beatles.

Even more unfortunate is the prognosis for an infected stand like ours. We're not cutting enough trees to require replanting; if we planted, the understory trees would likely become infected and not survive. That means, someday, when the pine here begins to die of old age, this stand will need to have all remaining mature pine removed and be replanted.

Here are some good resources about mistletoe for central Washington tree farmers:

Forest Health Notes: Dwarf Mistletoe - Washington State University Cooperative Extension - with advice on managing an infected stand.

Dwarf Mistletoe Biology and Management in Southeast Region - Washington Department of Natural Resources - 5 pages of detail plus 3 pages of photographs very useful in identifying mistletoe.
 
To locate more information about mistletoe, google "mistletoe" together with your particular tree species name.