DNR plans change for a better future

When it comes to managing state-managed timberlands in southwestern Washington, science, technology and cooperation are the key to success for the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

The agency manages timber for a variety of trusts ranging from state prisons and public schools to counties such as Wahkiakum. In the early 20th century, timber barons logged the land and walked away, leaving unpaid property taxes. Wahkiakum and other counties foreclosed the land, and in the 1940's the legislature created Forest Board Transfer trusts in which the DNR harvested timber, with 75-80 percent of the proceeds going to the counties and the remainder going to the DNR as a management fee.

In the 1990's, environmental concerns entered the picture, with the agency having to balance harvest with habitat conservation for endangered species.

On Monday, Wahkiakum County Commissioners Dan Cothren and Lisa Marsyla visited parts of the county trusts to learn how the agency is working to increase revenue and still maintain forest diversity.

The agency is looking at different ways to handle timber sales, said District Manager Steve Ogden and Region Manager Eric Wisch at the site of the Hayduke Sorts sale on Bradley Mountain.

Traditionally, Wisch said, the agency has sold the entire sale to a contractor who provides crews or hires contractors to fall the trees and get the logs to the mill. In the Hayduke Sorts sale, however, the DNR is acting as the purchaser, selling the logs directly to mills and hiring the crews to process the logs. The mills have different specifications--the sorts--for the logs they want.

"We've taken out the middle man," Wisch said. "That should produce a bit more revenue for the county."

DeBriae Logging was the logging company. After the trees are felled, a tractor called a shovel drags them to a collection point. There, a stroke-limber machine cuts them to the appropriate dimensions and piles them in sorts to be loaded and hauled to a mill. The stroke limber measures the dimensions and cuts the logs to length. Purchasers are particular, said DNR Marketing Specialist Keith Jones; the length must be within a two-inch tolerance.

The crews work fast; they'll send out 40 loads of logs in a day. The sale should generate about $1.2 million in revenue for Wahkiakum County this year.

After the ground is logged, the agency will plant a new crop of trees. Traditionally, the agency and private timber companies have almost always planted Douglas fir, the highest valued wood.

However, said forester Padraic Callahan, the agency is starting to plant other species, especially red alder and red cedar. Alder and cedar are resistant to two diseases that are impacting fir plantations--root rot and Swiss needle cast, and by planting them, they can halt or limit the spread of the two diseases.

In addition, said Intensive Management Specialist Chris Razor, alder grows fast and will almost produce two crops in the time it takes to grow one crop of Douglas fir.

"They grow faster than Douglas fir; that drives the economics," he said.

"Alder needs the best ground possible, and because it's susceptible to frost damage, it has to be at a low altitude. However, the tree grows fast, and a two-year-old tree will be 12 feet tall. By planting at the correct density, the trees will create a canopy that causes them to grow straight."

Foresters like alder--it's a native species; it fixes nitrogen into the ground, and because of recent increased demand over the past decade, it produces the highest return on investment of the native tree species.

Cedar also requires attention and work to start a plantation.

"Cedar is like candy to deer and elk," Wisch said. "They'll browse on cedar first and move to fir and hemlock when there's no more."

Foresters have three plots on Bradley Mountain to study the most effective ways to start the cedar plantations and provide enough protection so that the trees can grow high enough to survive browsing by elk.

At one plot, there are alternating rows of cedar seedlings enclosed in tubes of plastic mesh. Half the tubes are about waist high; the others are five feet high. Foresters have already learned that unprotected trees can have a loss of 20 percent to browsing animals.

The research should show which tubes provide the best protection and how much it will cost to do so.

The cost of planting a fir seedling is about 60 cents apiece, Razor said, and the cost of planting and protecting a cedar seedling is double that. However, once the trees are established, they grow at the same rate as Douglas fir and produce a high value wood.

In the end, the foresters hope to have a forest with different species providing habitat for wildlife and, at harvest, a good return on investment for trust beneficiaries such as Wahkiakum County.