Marion County Parks _ Minto Timber EXHIBIT.pdf

ASSESSMENT OF SALVAGE TIMBER

MINTO PARK

MARION COUNTY PARKS

preliminary report

ASSESSMENT OF SALVAGE TIMBER

Minto County Park for Marion County Parks

Cruisers: Matthew Sheehy, Niko Kwiatkowski

Cruise Dates: April 21th, 2022 Report Date: May 8th, 2022

Overview:

On April 21st, 2022, foresters from Northwest Forestry Services visited Minto County Park to examine salvage logs piled by ODOT. As I understand it, these trees were cut and decked during ODOT’s hazard tree operations along North Fork Road. The trees were killed in the Beachie Fire and sustained fire damage of varying severity. Fire-killed trees were cut and decked sometime between September 2021 and April 2022.

Logs were cut to sawlog lengths and collected into piles along a park road leading in from and adjacent to Highway 22. Logs appear to be sorted with pulp material in piles interspersed between sawlog piles. Piles were not sorted by species and consisted primarily of Douglas-fir with minor species of bigleaf maple, western hemlock and trace western redcedar.

A number of trees remain in the park that have not been bucked or limbed. Some of these trees appear to have sawlog quality logs but were not counted as part of this survey.

Approximately 179 (8 percent) of the decked logs were randomly selected and measured to obtain a volume and quality estimate. In general, the douglas-fir logs showed signs of weather damage and were in moderate condition. Some mills in the area may have an appetite but defect will have to be taken on a majority of logs. Hardwood logs were considered to be of unsuitable condition to be sold as sawlogs.

Most mills price Douglas-fir salvage logs by log length and the results below are broken down by the lengths observed during measurement.

Log Conditions:

Many logs appear to have been cut and piled several months ago and weather damage is common due to dry conditions in the fall and late January and February. Logs that showed checking, which was common but not universal, were given between 2-4 feet of defect. I that approximately 57% of #2 sawmill and 36% of #3 sawmill Douglas-fir logs show signs of moderate checking.

Burn damage was seen on the bark but rarely below and defect was not typically taken. Defect of 1-3” was taken on all logs that showed burn damage below bark, logging damage, rough characteristics, or signs of dry rot.

I estimate that defect accounts for approximately 6% of gross sawlog volume. Tables 1 and 2 below refer only to gross volumes.

Results:

Gross volume calculated on all logs was 473 MBF (thousand board feet). Net volume was 445 MBF. Of this, 413 MBF (391 MBF net) of Douglas-fir are of sawlog quality. Merchantable timber of other species make up 11 MBF (10 MBF net). Total pulp volume was 273 tons for all species combined. Pulp was converted at a rate of 5.5 per MBF. 2148 logs were counted from piles spanning the park. The majority of sawlogs are 40 feet in length. A tally of Douglas-fir logs by length is listed below as well as a breakdown by grade.

Tables 1 and 2. Results.

Gross Volume

Figure 1. Minto Park.