We fell immediately in love with our property when we first visited, particularly the older fir grove (thus the name “RavenGrove”). The woods weren’t overly dense in the spring and it was lush, green, and cool in the summer. Blackberry shrubs in one end provided habitat for the turkey’s, squirrels, and other birds. It was a good place to walk or sit and be at peace.
It was with great sadness after the first year that we learned that a number of fir trees were dying as a result of sustained drought and disease endemic to douglas fir trees. We had a real risk of fire and each winter we would face a growing number of fallen limbs, tree tops, and downed trees. The hazards were mounting. Last fall we had a few different arborists look at the grove and all of them recommended removing the dying trees. We hoped we could do selective logging and just thin out those trees that needed to be culled leaving a thinner yet still magnificent grove.
Challenge one: Find a logger/forester that would selectively harvest the dead/dying trees without costing us a great deal of money. If you have ever had a mature tree removed you know that it is very costly. Having 30-40 trees removed is monumental. We talked to several different logging companies and at first, they seemed willing to help.
However, as winter passed and spring came on us, the damage became even more clear. There were more problem trees than we at first thought. Also in order to keep our costs affordable, we needed to clear cut most of the grove.
Challenge two: We found that previous foresters were no longer interested. The amount of dead/dying trees coupled with poor timber prices from the local mills just didn’t work out for most logging companies. They needed to make a profit and we needed to not spend our money on the harvest.
We eventually found a forester that would do the work. He would harvest what he could and sell what he couldn’t to a chip mill leaving us with a relatively small payment in the end. He warned us that it would look worse before it looked better and to expect most of the trees to be removed in the end.
Although the project moved much slower than we hoped, he and his crew were great to work with. He determined a band of trees closer to the house that was in good condition that could remain, effectively preserving some sense of the grove. He also worked with us to keep the oaks, madrones, and ponderosa pines, as long as they could work around them.
They came in one morning and started dropping trees. At first, we had hopes that the overall mess wouldn’t be too bad, but as time went by and each tree that fell we got sicker and sicker. It will look worse before it looks better, yes indeed!
After a week or so work got going in earnest – They brought in some heavy equipment (log skidder that Bridge really wanted to drive around!). and the clear cut started. Early in the mornings a self loading log truck would come in and load marketable timber for the mill and pile chip logs to the side.
Eventually, we were left with only a few trees on the side of the property that they had to climb and set lines to direct the fall of the tree. We included a couple of really dead fir tree’s next to our fledgling arena, just as a precaution to keep them from falling over the property line into the neighbors land. Once all the trees were down, marketable timber sent to the mill and deadwood sent to a chip mill we had another decision to make.
Challenge Three: Cleanup… To keep our costs down the forester left the slash laying where they trimmed it. The amount of slash and bark was staggering enough that we elected to pay extra to have it piled. We couldn’t see spending our summer piling wood. This is just a rough clean up and we have quite a bit more work to finish the job. Given the amount of short rotten timber, we had a few cords of wood left that the log truck couldn’t move.
We were contacted by a local man who wanted to take this larger dead wood and sell it as firewood for the Lions Club Food Bank fund. That got rid of some additional leftover wood – but we still have six massive slash piles that will need to be burned this fall and then, of course, we have to figure out how to deal with the hundreds of stumps remaining.
When we started this project we knew that it was necessary and we are trying to look on the bright side. More pasture. Better light. We can plant more variety of trees. Still, it is heartbreaking to lose so much.
We have yet to make final decisions on what to do with the land – most likely after we burn the slash – we will work on planting it with grass for extended pasture. In a few years, we could even consider an indoor riding arena.