GOING PAPERLESS

Today I opened up the envelope containing my insurance premium that arrived in the mail last week and is due in a few days.   I was going to write a check and mail it in the envelope provided along with the payment stub.   Well, there was no return envelope or payment stub, just a statement with instructions on how to pay online or by phone.   I tried both with no success.   Online it would not accept my credit card and by phone the automated voice wanted me to repeat everything until I got frustrated and hung up.   In the end I wrote a check and mailed to my insurance agent with a note expressing my frustrations and asking them to figure it out.   

ELECTION DAY 2022

By the end of the day none of us may see all the candidates get elected that we voted for.    In some cases it could take weeks to figure out who received the most votes and chaos may follow in some situations.  One positive thing for sure it brings an end to all the negative political TV ads.   All the money spent on these ads could have fed and clothed the poor around the world.

This reminds me of a quote by Mark Twain:

"The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet."

Killing Hardwoods

Back in my early days with the Forest Service on the Orleans District of the Six Rivers National Forest we had to go through a chainsaw certification class in order to fall any standing hardwood trees remaining on the clear-cut units before burning the slash.   Most these trees were tan oak, madrone, alders or maples ranging in size from 6 to 24+ inches in diameter and 10 to 40 feet in height that survived the logging operation without getting knocked down.   The first day of training was spent on safety, saw maintenance and operations.   Then we had to go out in the woods and fall hardwood trees on a logged clear-cut unit before getting our certification card.    The Forest Service had Homelite and McCulloch saws with 24 inch bars.   They were nothing like the modern lightweight saws of today and after a few hours they seem to get heavier as the day went on.  

Back in those days hardwoods were looked upon as an undesirable species.   After the clear-cut units were planted, mostly with Douglas-fir seedlings, the competing hardwood vegetation had to be eradicated within the first 5 years.  This was primarily done by aerial spraying a defoliant chemical (2-4-5-T) over a 5 year period.   In the Vietnam War this was called Agent Orange which was an orange dye put in a mixture of 2-4-5-T and 2-4-D to show the pilots where they had sprayed the jungle vegetation below.   If I remember correctly this management practice came to an end on the National Forests in 1979 due to contamination of streams and the general outrage of the public living downstream.    Shortly thereafter the forest products industry found a use for these trees as pulp for paper products, hog fuel for their cogeneration plants and other specialty wood products.    In the 1980’s when the lumber market crashed the chip market for pulp went up because the mills were not producing enough wood chips as a by-product from milling lumber.   It was these hardwoods trees that saved some mills from going under.  I can remember South Coast Lumber in Brookings throwing finished lumber into their chipper along with hardwoods to make ends meet by selling wood chips to the Menasha Pulp mill in North Bend.     

Alaska Roadless Rule

 The following is a draft of my comments due by 12/16/19 to the Forest Service dealing with the Road Rules imposed in 2001.  Basically this rule limited any new road construction on the Tongass National Forest, the largest National Forest in the U.S.   The Trump administration want to change this and open up these forests for more logging.  Note the link below for more information.   Will forward a brief history of logging and what I experienced, when I worked there on a detail in 1992 or 93 (don't remember the year).  The logging roads were constructed by pounding pit-run rock in to the boggy ground with Cats and other heavy equipment to support the off highway loads that had 16 foot log bunks, since most these roads had no public traffic to deal with.   Hopefully UW can spread the word about this and individual members can read the draft EIS and make their own comments.

DRAFT COMMENTS:

The preferred alternative  to change the 2001 Roadless Rule is way too extreme for the Tongass National Forest, where 70% of the old growth forest was removed between 1954 to 1990.  It would take 300 years for many of these cut over areas to become the forests they once were with an overstory of spruce, hemlock and cedar.   How much more rock is available to pound into the boggy ground to firm up all the new roads in order to support the off-highway loads to transport the logs down to the sea, where they will be  assembled into rafts for delivery to the mills or made available to the export market?   This is the last temperate rain forest in the world that is sequestering carbon dioxide.  A world that is being altered by a warming climate, as evident along the Arctic coast of Alaska, where native villages are eroding away and the permafrost is melting.   Alaska today is very dependent on tourism and commercial fishing, which makes up 25% of the economy.   Logging only makes up 1% of the economy.   Is it worth risking  one of the last great salmon fishery habitats by putting more sediment into the streams and altering the landscape of many watersheds?  This preferred alternative will only produce a short term economical gain and a long term ecological disaster.  Lets consider more thinning alternatives to help restore the cut-over areas of the past and utilize existing roads.    What kind of a world to we want to leave for the next generations?

more info:  

www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=54511

Please make written comments by 12/16/19  to:

USDA Forest Service

Attn:  Alaska Road Rule

P.O. Box 21628

Juneau, Alaska 99802

Or email:  akroadlessrule@usda.gov

Kanipe Comments on Logging

 For what it is worth, these are my comments to ODF for the Notification to salvage log on Mildred Kanipe Park.   You are receiving this, in addition to members of the Friends of Kanipe Park board because of your past involvement and interest in this park.   There is a legitimate need to remove some trees damaged from the recent storm to protect park infrastructure, improvements and park users.   Many of us fear it is a green light to go beyond what is necessary to satisfy the BOC and their cronies, and recent activities at Whistler's Bend is an example.  

You are encouraged to send your own comments to ODF and the county parks department (note email addresses on the following).   Comments are due by 3/28/19.

There are 29 other parks that the county plans some sort of salvage operation on in addition to Kanipe. 

The following are my comments to the Notification of Operation submitted to ODF by Douglas County for salvage logging on Mildred Kanipe Memorial Park.  These comments are based on my observations of the recent storm damage while walking through the park on 3/16/19.

The oak savanna area of the park has scattered oak trees and branches that have fallen.  The Underwood Hill road/trail is blocked with oak and maple trees just beyond the Bachelor Creek bridge.  There is also a slump on this road where half the road bed has dropped down toward the creek.   Bachelor Creek has a fair amount of oaks and maples that have fallen into or across the creek.  This may enhance fish habitat and ODF&W needs be consulted prior to any operations in this riparian area.  The Fernwood road/trail has oak trees across it east of the bridge up to the clearing toward the open ridge top.   Much of the hardwoods blocking roads can be cut up as firewood or decked for firewood cutting by permit.

 Except for one large green fir tree in a side creek and a few pole size firs west of the bridge, I did not notice any large Douglas fir trees, dead or green that had fallen.  Most of the standing dead fir trees have died within the last 5 to 6 years from drought and/or insects.  Most have little merchantability, except maybe in the bottom log (12 to 34 foot).  The average height of these trees range between 60 to 80 feet.  Many are now serving the needs of wildlife.  There will be excessive breakage if these trees are felled due to rot creating much slash and fuel loading and in some areas creating a 1 to 2 acre patch cut (small clearcuts), since many smaller trees will be damaged from falling operations.  Most the trails in the coniferous forests have fir branches and small trees across them that can be cleared by hand or ATV.  In conclusion, I saw more damage in the day use area than the back country of the park.

Prior to any operations a logging plan either for a timber sale contract or a service contract needs to be made available to the public with the county's written criteria for what constitute a hazard tree and how they will designate such trees for cutting along with an estimated volume that might be removed as saw logs or decked for later removal or as firewood.   A slash treatment plan is necessary and a map showing how extensive the skid trail system will be along with location of spur roads and landings. 

History has proven that the public must be informed and involved when dealing with this park and others in Douglas County.

Sincerely,

Mike Burke

USFS-Ret.

Timber Sale Contract Admin.

Oakland, OR 

NEPA

 Dear Chief Tony Tooke,

As a Timber Sale Contract Administrator from 1975 to 1995 on four National Forests, including the Six Rivers, Plumas, Siskiyou and Umpqua Forests, I saw first hand the need for NEPA and public input in the planning process of timber sales.   Even back then many environmental and ecological concerns slipped through the cracks causing damage to the ecosystem, especially to the watersheds and fishery resource.  

Attached is a letter to Congress on my thoughts in regards to short-cutting the NEPA process through HR 2936.

December 10, 2017

To:  Oregon Congressional Delegation

Re:  Resilient Federal Forest Act (HR 2936)

 We are experiencing catastrophic wildfires for the following reasons:  (1) suppression of fires for the last century (2) decades of even-aged management producing overgrown plantations prone to fires, and (3) drier and warmer summers due to a changing climate.  We don’t want to repeat past management practices that got us into this situation, in addition to the declining fisheries, landslides, loss of wildlife habitat and degradation of our watersheds.   In many ways we are still paying for decades of mismanagement of our public forests.

Categorical Exclusions (CE) have their place where there are no environmental concerns.  But placing an upper acreage limit for using a CE (for example, allowing up to 10,000 acres for salvage logging without an environmental analysis with the excuse that there are no environmental concerns in that size project area) is ludicrous.  What about the effects of any new road construction, reconstruction, watershed analysis and other resource protection needs?  Using a CE in this way is a prescription for disaster and destroys the public’s trust.   A CE should not be used to appease the timber industry with mass production of timber sales which could lead to speculation, as in the 1980’s, or to supplement the overcutting of their own timber lands and/or the export of those private logs to China.

There is a need for separate funding for wildfire suppression through FEMA and more appropriated funds to land management agencies for:  fire prevention by thinning, prescribed burning, development of fuel breaks, and harvest prescriptions for controlling insect and disease infestations. 

Please keep me informed on the status of this act as it progresses in the Senate.

 

Mike Burke

855 Wildflower Lane

Oakland, OR 97462                          

 farmhand.mike@gmail.com