FORESTRY NOTES
Looks like we are going to get through another fire season without a major fire in our area. Now is a good time to do some planning for next July when the forest dries out and the weather heats up. The District still has cost share funds available that must be used up by October 31st of 2012, so now is the time to contact the District for a project. The District will reimburse up to 75% of hold down rates for forest stand health improvements, Firewise clearing directly around your home, or fuelbreaks around forest subdivisions. Driving around, I see lots of opportunity to take advantage of this grant especially in overcrowded pine stands.
This past season I did not see the bark beetles active like they have been in the past nor did we have major defoliators feeding on our conifers like surrounding areas had. Scolytus Beetle that has been responsible for killing the Grand Fir in the Blue Mountains seems to have run its course. Pine bark beetles were at low levels this year probably due to the cold wet spring. In Idaho and in neighboring Columbia County Spruce Budworm and Doug Fir Tussock Moth, defoliators that feed on the needles have been very active. Driving down Highway 55 towards Boise and vast sections of the forest are stripped of foliage from Spruce Budworm. I saw Spruce Budworm damage last week on the South Touchet River by Dayton. Spruce Budworm eat this year’s needles, mostly attacks Grand Fir and Doug Fir not as much. You might have noticed all the white butterflies flying in late August this year in the forest and even in town. These were Pine Butterflies that eat the needles of pine trees and were at their highest population in a many years. These Pine Butterflies are always around and usually not a problem. This year the Pine Butterfly population was so large in Eastern Oregon that it stripped Ponderosa Pine trees almost bare in some areas. These defoliators do not usually kill trees unless they keep up the attack for a few years. The best defense from these defoliators or bark beetles is to keep your forest from getting overcrowded, and create or keep plant diversity.
Some folks on the forestry tour asked me to get membership forms to join the Blue Mountain Chapter of the Washington Farm Forestry Association, which I now have in the office and are also available on line
www.wafarmforestry.com. Cost is $45 to join and you will learn a lot about taking care of the forest and sharing with like minded folks.
One last piece of news. Tom Schoenfelder is the new DNR forester for our area. Tom will help landowners with forest practice permits, cost share grants from the state, and stewardship advice for your ground. He also is in charge of the DNR fire pumper crews based in our area. It has been quite a few years since the DNR has based a forester in Southeast Washington. Tom can be reached at (509) 607-6204.
Please call with any questions – Mike Miraglio at 509-758-8012 or
mikeaccd@cableone.net
New Forestry Program
The Asotin County Conservation District is offering a new Forestry Cost Share Program to forest landowners and to home and cabin owners in the forested area of the county. The program has two objectives. One is to cost share with landowners to modify forest vegetation around homes and subdivisions to provide defensible space against wildfire threats. Secondly it provides cost share money for timberland owners that want to improve their timberlands. This program is funded with a grant from the
U. S. Forest Service.
Here is how the program works. We meet on your property and figure out what work is going to be done to meet the objectives of the program. You do the work or contract the work out and the Asotin County Conservation District will reimburse 50% to 75% of your actual cost up to a limit for each practice. You or your contractor keep track of your labor and materials and submit a bill when the work is complete.
Practices the district will be cost share include:
- fuels reduction work to provide defensible space around structures and fuel breaks to protect subdivisions
- pre- commercial thinning, pruning, brush control, and slash disposal to improve the health of the forest.
Please contact Mike Miraglio at the District – 509-758-8012 or email mikeaccd@cableone.net for more specific information about the program or to schedule a site visit.
Before
After
FORESTRY TOUR 2010
The Asotin County Conservation District co-sponsored a forestry tour along with the NRCS and the Blue Mountain RC&D on September 3rd, 2010. We had a good turnout, thirty two folks on the tour. We met at Fields Spring State Park for coffee and donuts under beautiful weather conditions. The focus of the tour was to learn about insect (bark beetles) and disease problems and what landowners can do to mitigate for these natural problems and grow a healthier more productive forest.
We brought in three forest entomologists to lead the tour and answer landowners questions. Stops included in the park looking at old growth Grand Fir and Doug Fir management issues identifying tree and root rots. We proceeded to Ed and Elaine Nagles tree farm along with the adjacent Druffel/Kuther property. Both landowners had overstocked Ponderosa Pine stands suffering mortality from bark beetles and Western Gall Rust. The Druffel/Kuther pine stand was in the process of being thinned so the group got a firsthand look at what can be done to improve the forest. Discussions at this site centered around proper tree stocking levels to prevent tree mortality.
Our last stop was an interesting eye opener at Dick and Della Allen’s residence. A contractor came in with a grinding/mulching machine and completed a fuels reduction project on five acres surrounding their home to provide defensible space. Their trees were thinned and pruned to seven feet above the ground, the brush was mowed and the downed trees and slash were all turned into chips and blown back on the ground for fertilizer mostly by one machine. The results are a low fire danger and almost park like setting.
Please contact
Mike Miraglio
mike@accd.cableone.net
ACCD Firewise Resource
Technician
For additional
information on the Firewise and Forestry Cost-Share Programs
509-758-8012
720 6th St, Ste. B
Clarkston, WA 99403
WFFA BLUE MOUNTAIN CHAPTER FORMED
The Washington State Farm Forestry Association inaugural meeting of the Blue Mountain Chapter was held in Dayton, WA in September 2009. The Blue Mountain Chapter of WFFA was formed to provide private land forest owners in southeast Washington a forum to share forestry related topics on their ground. The chapter represents Asotin, Garfield, Columbia, and Walla Walla counties and would love participation from all forest land owners.
Membership dues to join WFFA are sixty five dollars a year. Besides getting to meet great people the WAFFA provides educational information to the landowner thru a news letter and on line. They can help with forest management planning and forest certification thru the American Tree Farm certification plan. WFFA has a representative in Olympia to look out for private landowners forestry issues in the state legislature.
The Blue Mountain Chapter plans to meet quarterly and hopes to rotate meetings between counties. They also are planning to do forestry tours. Elected to president and secretary respectively were Greg and Susan Kelly who have timber ground above Dayton. Tom Beechnoir was elected vice-president and his farm and timber ground are outside of Walla Walla.
For more information to learn, share, and promote forest management in our area contact Greg and Susan Kelly at 509-520-4579 or the WFFA at 360-736-5750
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