© 2002
The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
All rights reserved

Send us an email

Display Advertising

Hikers view thinning projects
By Conrad Weiler

Colin Paul explains forest treatment practices to Camp Sherman hikers.

Each Saturday morning this summer, Friends of the Metolius is sponsoring a 10 a.m. walk through the demonstration areas being thinned near Camp Sherman.

Colin Paul led a group on Saturday, June 22, and explained that the thinning is hoped to restore health and ecological balance in the local forest. It is also hoped that the local fire danger to residential areas may be reduced.

It has been many decades since there has been a fire to thin the area naturally.

The demonstration areas, a joint project of the Deschutes National Forest and Friends of the Metolius, gives local citizens a chance to compare various thinning strategies and voice their opinions as to which they prefer. There even are three sections left untouched as a comparison.

Eventually it is hoped that the Forest Service will thin about 10,000 acres in the Metolius Basin area after receiving citizen input. These thinnings would be in the most advantageous areas to protect residential areas from forest fire.

Paul walked the group through section 1A, a larch restoration area, which had been mechanically thinned.

While it doesn't look very pretty today, the area will continue to look better over the next one to five years. Slash piles were created and will be burned next year.

Next came 1B, thinning to favor larch. Large ponderosa were left and mistletoe was removed from healthy larch.

Section 2A displayed thinning from below done mechanically and favoring Douglas fir, larch, ponderosa and white pine.

Section 3, currently the best-looking of the sections visited, was thinned by hand. This is the most expensive way to thin. Small trees were removed favoring retention of Douglas fir, ponderosa and white pine.

Section 4 had a prescribed burn this spring to reduce fuel on the forest floor. Wildflowers are quite evident and the area looks reasonably healthy.

Section 5, a pre-commercial thinning, was done mechanically with slash scattered. A prescribed burn is planned next year after the downed materials dry.

The demonstration area starts at the Four Corners area of Camp Sherman where roads 1419 and 1420 meet (at the stop sign).

A short forest walk through some or all of the 56 treated acres offers many rewards.

Right now wildflowers like Arrowleaf balsamroot, various lupines, Peck's penstemon, Scarlet gilia and Western columbine are very much in evidence.

People unable to visit the demonstration site may keep up to date by visiting the Friends Internet site at: http://www.metoliusfriends.org.

Back to front page