TreeTopics

By Amy Grotta, OSU Forestry & Natural Resources Extension – Columbia, Washington & Yamhill Counties

Slash is the term used to describe the treetops, limbs and other woody material left behind after a timber harvest. The amount of slash left behind will depend on several factors, including the size and quality of the harvested trees. Universally, how the slash is dealt with is an important consideration in the logging process. Heavy amounts of slash left on the ground can be a fire hazard and it makes tree planting more difficult and more costly.

Piling and burning is the most common method of slash treatment nowadays. However, some landowners are looking for alternatives to burning for various reasons. Pile burning can be challenging due to weather conditions or smoke restrictions. When logging contractors are busy, they may be reluctant to include pile burning in their contract due to the time involved, leaving it up to the landowner. And, there are greenhouse gas considerations with burning slash. For all of these reasons, it is worth looking at the pros and cons of other methods of slash treatment.

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By Amy Grotta, OSU Forestry & Natural Resources Extension – Columbia, Washington & Yamhill Counties

Back in February I introduced readers to a new initiative that OSU Extension has begun to learn more about how native bees use managed forests. Our first season of data collection is now in the books. I’d like to explain a bit more about how we designed this project and some early takeaways.

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Glenn Ahrens, OSU Forestry and Natural Resources Extension Agent – Clackamas, Marion, and Hood River Counties

Many family forest owners I meet have older trees and forests – 60 to 80 or more years old – and they would like to retain mature forest conditions. They are interested in periodic thinning, selective harvesting of trees or small patches, and keeping options open for the future. But landowners with larger older timber often hear that they are better off, from an economic and operational standpoint, to clearcut a patch and regenerate it all at once.

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Brad Withrow-Robinson, Forestry & Natural Resources Extension agent, Benton, Linn and Polk Counties, and Amy Grotta, OSU Forestry & Natural Resources Extension agent, Columbia, Washington and Yamhill Counties.

We are excited about recently finishing a Master Woodland Manager (MWM) training and welcoming a new group of MWM volunteers in the mid and north Willamette Valley. The 22 local landowners hail from Benton, Polk, Washington and Yamhill Counties, and bring a wide range of interests, experience and skills to the program. This advanced training included eight full days of classes and field tours, over four months, providing participants with lots of practical information and opportunities to share and learn from classmates.

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Brad Withrow-Robinson, OSU Forestry & Natural Resources Extension agent for Benton, Linn and Polk counties.

A recent clearcut/new plantation/rebounding forest in Coast Range foothills

Forests disturbed by fire or harvest look different than they did before the disturbance. Just how different depends on the size and intensity of the disturbance, of course. It’s no surprise that a site changed by fire or harvest clearly loses its value to certain wildlife species who like dark, closed forests. But, disturbance creates opportunities for many other species of plants and animals which prosper in the different, more open environment as the forest rebounds.

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Brad Withrow-Robinson, OSU Forestry & Natural Resources Extension agent for Benton, Linn and Polk counties.

People enjoy and cherish Oregon’s forests for a number of reasons. High among them are the beauty and the variety of plants and animals that live there.

While most of us picture older forests when we read that, we would be wrong to think of that as the complete picture. Nonetheless a large part of our emotional, scientific and social energy is directed towards those older forests.

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By Amy Grotta, OSU Forestry & Natural Resources Extension – Columbia, Washington and Yamhill Counties

Insects – they can get a bad rap. Many of our humankind categorically view them as pests – agents of uncleanliness, nuisance, or destruction. Sure, it’s hard to appreciate houseflies, ticks, mosquitos and yellow jackets, but the vast majority of them – nearly 100,000 known insect species in the U.S. alone –are simply going about their business and doing no harm to us. Many are even providing services that we take for granted such as disposing of detritus and cycling nutrients.

Larval galleries of wood boring insects in a dead ponderosa pine tree

The same goes for insects in the forest. We in Extension receive many photos and samples brought to us from people who suspect that insects are killing their trees. However, I’m here to tell you that if you have a dead or dying tree, then chances are that even though it is full of insects and their tunnels, it’s usually a case of correlation, not causation. Continue reading →

Brad Withrow-Robinson, Forestry & Natural Resources Extension Agent, Benton, Linn and Polk Counties.

We have written about forest diversity, its importance in providing habitat for different species, or a species at different seasons or at different stages of its development. We have addressed the forest, trees and shrubs in particular, but the importance of habitat diversity applies to other parts of the forest environment too. Like streams.

Guillermo Giannico discusses aquatic habitats along Griffith Creek, Benton Count.

We learned about the importance of having different stream habitats to support fish, insects and other aquatic life while on a recent Extension tour. A stream can have many types of habitat. The anatomy of a stream (the stream’s morphology) can be described in terms that are familiar to anglers: pools, riffles, glides, bars and tail outs. Each term describes a different combination of water depth and flow that together provide a type of habitat. You can see and often hear this: Some parts are quiet (pool and glide), some gurgle their presence to those nearby (a riffle), while falls and a plunge pools announce themselves at a distance. Aquatic biologists get excited about streams with a good mix of these habitats in a stream reach, just as wildlife biologists get excited by forest structure and snags. Hmm. Continue reading →

Brad Withrow-Robinson, Forestry & Natural Resources Extension Agent, Benton, Linn and Polk Counties.

I was recently on a tour where we looked at how growing conditions, productivity and plant communities all change across the landscape according to elevation, soils, rainfall, aspect and other factors. These are often included in the term “site productivity”. These factors give important insights to the ability of a site to support different types of plants, and also how well they will grow there. This capacity to produce biomass, or support tree growth is often expressed in the important forestry concept of site class as described in this article.

There is something odd about this rock….

We traveled from near the crest of the Coast Range back to the Valley floor to watch changes in site class and vegetation. Our final stop was a rock sitting on a small hill beside a vineyard in Yamhill County, looking out across the Willamette Valley.

It is a large rock (about 90 tons), unrelated to any of the bedrock of the hill. This rock helps tell a story of events during the last ice age that shaped the Willamette valley and its historic vegetation. It influences the present, largely agricultural, vegetation as well. Continue reading →

By Amy Grotta, OSU Forestry & Natural Resources Extension – Columbia, Washington and Yamhill Counties

If you’ve ever been out on a field tour with a bunch of foresters, you probably heard one of them use the term “site productivity” in describing a particular forest, or comparing two different forests. But to the person without a lot of formal forestry background, site productivity may be a vague concept at best. However, it is an underlying attribute that turns out to explain a lot of what we observe in our forests: what types of trees thrive, which seem to have problems, what amount of competition our seedlings face, and more. So let’s take a closer look at site productivity. Continue reading →

TreeTopics

Serving small woodland owners and managers in the Willamette Valley and northwest Oregon

Don’t want to burn? Other options for treating slash after a timber harvest

Forests and native bees: the Season 1 recap

Thinning and selective management of maturing Douglas-fir forests (part 1)

Welcoming a new group of Master Woodland Managers

Forests on the Rebound, part 2

Forests on the Rebound Part 1

Many forest insects are mistaken for tree killers

Habitat Diversity in Streams

Big events of the past can still be seen in the landscape and vegetation today

Size matters: a brief look at site productivity and what it means

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