Pole Creek Fire area timber salvage set
The Sisters Ranger District of the Deschutes National Forest released Thursday a final decision on a timber harvest project within the area of last year’s 26,000-acre Pole Creek Fire near Sisters.
The decision will allow for timber harvest on 962 acres of the 26,120 acres of the Pole Fire, or approximately 4 percent of the total fire area.
The harvest will generate about 11 MMBF (million board feet) of timber and about 0.880 MBF (thousand board feet) of firewood.
Given this level of harvest, the project will generate and/or sustain about 178-288 jobs and generate about $461,723 of revenue, the Forest Service said.
The project is located entirely in the Matrix land allocation as defined by the Northwest Forest Plan. The decision includes the reforestation of harvested areas by planting trees and road maintenance on 67 miles of road.
Danger trees located along Forest roads will be felled and left in place in Riparian Reserve and Late Successional Reserve land allocations; however, danger trees located along Forest roads in the Matrix land allocation will be removed as timber products.
The project will not construct any new or temporary roads; will limit ground-based logging to slopes less than 30 percent; will not harvest areas that provided pre-fire nesting, roosting, or foraging habitat for the northern spotted owl or were underburned or experienced mixed mortality; and will avoid areas of white-headed woodpecker habitat. About six snags per acre will be retained to provide post-harvest wildlife habitat.
An Emergency Situation Determination (ESD) was granted by the chief of the Forest Service on August 21. The ESD would expedite the time period in which a timber sale could be offered to the public by allowing implementation immediately after a decision is signed. The decision is not subject to the predecisional objection process as outlined at 36 CFR 218.
The Pole Creek Fire was caused by lightning on Sept. 9, 2012 and was declared contained Oct. 17. The final fire perimeter was 26,120 acres, all on Deschutes National Forest lands.
About 60 percent of the fire occurred within the Three Sisters Wilderness, Whychus Creek Wild and Scenic River corridor, Inventoried Roadless Area, Late Successional Reserve, and Riparian Reserve land allocations. Roughly 10,000 acres of the Matrix land allocation and areas outside the Northwest Forest Plan land allocations were also burned.
The Bend Bulletin reports (http://bit.ly/18TBK4t ) an advertisement is expected in about a week to announce the sale and a minimum bid price.
But there are questions about whether mills will be interested — one timber manager says the trees will have fungus and “bug holes” that reduce their value.
An environmental group says it hasn’t decided whether to challenge the sale, but a representative says moving heavy equipment through burned woods can cause further damage.
