April 10, 1969 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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April 10, 1969 |
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.... 4P
PILOT DUANE BROOKS, ben Flower, District Ranger for
the Shelton Ranger District, emd Jerry Johnson, an ob-
server for the Forest Service, check maps before a flight
in the Porest Service's aerial fire patrol.
Olympic Most Nearly Forested In This Region
Of the 19 National Forests In
Region 6, the Olympic is the most
nearly completely forested, ac-
cording to Wynne M. Maule, For-
est Supervisor. The Forest, with
headquarters in Olympia has fin-
ished reforesting the backlog of
non-stocked commercial forest
lands. These non-stocked areas,
some of long standing, were most-
ly created by fires. Areas from
which timber is now harvested
are currently planted or seeded
with tree species suited to indi-
vidual areas.
Logging first began on the Oly-
mostly restocked by natural re-
generation.
Logging on the remainder of
the Forest began at a somewhat
later date and was rather spora-
dic until the early 1940's. Refor.
estation has kept pace with log.
ging since timber harvest enter-
ed the regular flow stage.
The procedure is to plant or
seed a harvested area the plant-
ing season following log removal
and slash burning, On harvested
areas where slash is light or
where burning might damage a
thin layer of soil, seeding or
On other Districts 90 per cent of
the harvested areas will be sat-
isfactorily stocked within five
years. Our records show that we
approach very close to 100 per-
cent restocking within eight years
of timber harvest, Maple said.
The Olympic National Forest
plants approximately 4,200 acres
ann seeds approximately 1,500
acres annually. Douglas-fir is us-
ed almost exclusively in reforest-
ing work. Most Douglas-fir seed-
lings planted are grown two years
in seed beds before being field
planted. In some special areas
the hand planting is contracted.
To obtain faster,growing plant-
ing stock the Dennie Ahl Seed
Orchard was established in 1958
on the Shelton Ranger District.
Grafting of cuttings or slips from
Douglas-fir trees was done on 20
acres which supported a stand
of natural, small Douglas-fir trees
In 1960, 15 more acres were add-
ed to the orchard. In 1968, a-
nother 20 acres were added.
First seed produced from the
grafted cuttings was one pound
(approximately 42,000 seeds) in
1959. In 1962, 22 pounds of seeds
1968 BusyYear For Forest '
The year 1968 proved to be a- sale program a number of gust after considerable amounts tion staking and
nother busy year for the Shelton streams were cleared of barriers of rainfall. A second year of aer- construction activities
Ranger District, Olympic Nation- which would prevent migrating ial detection was completed coy- 30 miles of road
al Forest. In order to provide a fish from traveling upstream or ering four of the five ranger dis- year. In addition
never-ending supply of timber for cattse siltation to downstream tricts of the Olympic Forest. The were used in the
the wood-using industries in our fish habitat. Shelton District also provided recreation area,
area, the reforestation program The Corps of Engineers pro- aerial detection to portions of the will be constructed
on the Shelton District continues ject on the Wynoochee River a- Shelton and Port Angeles Dis- considerable effort
to plant 2,000 acres annually. This bove Camp Grisdale is going to tricts of the Washington State De- roads, sanitary
work consists of hand planting be a reality. Some construction partment of Natural Resources the proposed
over one-half million Douglas-fir activity in the area of the pro- under a cooperative agreement, tion projects, which
two year-old trees. The planting ject was completed in 1968 con- Something new in fire control for the over-all
job is accomplished by contracts sisting of a new bridge across the district this past year was At the years end
with private companies and by the Wynoochee River and replace- the operation of a helitack crew. approximately 835
Forest Service crews. After plant- ment of a portion of Forest Ser- Fxperience during recent years el surfaced,
ations are established, much el- vice Road 234. The primary con- on forest fires has proven that within the Shelton
fort is devoted to increasing yie- tract should be awarded by mid big dividends in cutting fire fight- aries. A portion of
ld on the timber producing lands. 1969. ing costs and reducing over-all is across private
One such effort is an adminis- damages can be obtained from the Simpson
tratlve chemical thinning study Activity in 1968 in timber man- a specialized crew, well trained The over-all total
initiated on the district during agement amounted to a cut of in all phases of initial attack and large portion of
the fall of 1968. This study is a 140,121,690 board feet, up 23,469, air operations procedure using of forest roads
precommercial thinning in a twen- 299 from 1967. The return to the helicopters. The project was fin- vious article in
ty year-old Douglas-fir stand. Government was $4,577,352.60. anced jointly by the Shelton and in last year's
The two types of chemicals be- Intensified management in the Quinault Ranger Districts and gram was the
ing used are Silvasar 150 and form of three small sales occurr- administered by the Shelton Dis- oral more rustic
Ansar 170, Results of this study ed in 1968. One selective cut sale trict with a five-man crew sta- roadways, There are
are encouraging even though in. was completed where an over- tioned at Satsop Work Center, 650 signs m the
conclusive at this date. story was removed, leaving a The successful burning of more which are
The Dennie Ahl Seed Orchard healthy stand of immature tim- than 2,500 acres of logging slash veling public who
has added another year's growth ber, One highly infected stand was started in February under est. Vandalism is
to the growing stock, which is de- was removed to prevent the ideal burning conditions, then re- my in the sign
dicated to the production of elite spread of insects. Three contrac, sumed in September during a present time.
tors operated throughout the year lull in early fall rains. We felt we The Forest
Douglas-fir tree seed. This past removing dying, dead and dour should make a concerted effort ation with Simpson
fall we were able to harvest an
additional 100 pounds of eontroll- timber. Two sales were made for in broadcast burning because the pany, jointly
ed pollinated seed. The future for removal of the Wynoochee Reser- fall season in 1967 was a poor ton Cooperative
vior timber amounting to an est- year to accomplish much of this Unit for the
this project looks very bright and treated 22,800,000 board feet, coy- type of work. purpose of the
it is fast becoming an area of
great interest to forest genett, ering an area of 688 acres. The engineering section of the Mason and eastern'
elsts all over the world. The fire season was very suc- district organized, surveyed, bor County, and als0
Recreation facilities on the Na- cessful in 1968, particularly with and designed 23/ miles of for- good forest practiceS
tlonal Forest lands of the Shelton fire danger ending around Au- est roads and did the contruct- a program of titnber
District consist presently of two
campgrounds - Brown Creek and
Wynoochee Falls. Several hund-
red campers recreate in the un-
developed areas of the forest be.
cause of overcrowded camp-
grounds. Plans were completed
in 1968 to enlarge the Brown
Creek facilities, a favorite spot
for many local families. Con-
struction will begin in the spring
of 1969. In addition, plans are well
along tot five recreational devel-
opments on the proposed Wynoo-
chee Reservoir. When construct-
ed these areas will provide facil- ,
tries for 150 camping units, 36
picnic units, three swimming
areas, and four boat launching '
areas. Two of these proposed
campgrounds will be ready for
use in Fiscal Year 1972,
Under the watershed program
35 acres were sowed with grass
seed for soil stabilization. The
majority of the seeding was com-
pleted on road cutbanks and fill
slopes for erosion control mea-
sures.
On the upper drainages of
Brown Creek, a small landslide
mpic National Forest in 1906. The planting is done with slash dis- larger trees (including some tran-, were produced. Thirty - nine was stabilized by planting hard-
first cutting was in the Rocky posal, splants) are field planted. , pounds of seed was produced In wood plants, willows and alder.
,_ :::: c va- we grpv . T crop or S was 125 In atitl t, slt,w
adjacent to Htnd Canal. In the eat tim goal is to establish a new of he Olympic Natfona! Forest pOunds of seed. The first potmd with soil stabilization types of
heyday of railroad logging, 1921 Forest within five years after the is such that mechanical methods of seed produced was used ia
grasses.
to 1930, many of the lower valleys mature timber is harvested. On of tree planting are seldom pass- laboratory and experimental Deer hunting was average but
adjacent to Hcod Canal were log- the District with the most favor- ible. Most tree planting is done work. About 300,000 seedlings elk harvest was above average
ged as high up the valley slopes able growing conditions, 70 per- by planters using special plant- raised from the 1962 seed crop
,as the big skidders could reach, cent of the area will be satisfae- ing hoes. Seeding is done by hel- have been field planted on the with approximately 200 animals
being harvested from the ranger
These early lo;ged areas were torily stocked within five years, icopter. All seeding and most of Olympic National Forest. district elk herd. The 55 wildlife
' condition and use transects were
measured and will show range
conditions and trends in deer and
elk populations. The lower por-
tions of the South Fork Skoko-
, mtsh and Wyncx)eJe Rivers were
, seeded to various species to brow- : ,- , ,:
se plants for big game in these
areas. In the area of fish habi-
tat improvements a barrier to • ,"
spawning anadromous fish was '.::.
removed in the South Fork Skoko-
mlsh River gorge near the high ONE OF THE HELICOPTERS w.hich axe is loaded in preparation for
steel bridge. Under the timber used in the U. S. Forest Service work here
' iiii
RECONITRUCTION of the Wynoochee River Bridge Just ects carried mat by the SheRon Ranger District, of the
below the proposed dam on which the U. S. Army Corps U.g. Forest Service in 1968.
of EZineers is working was one of the construction proJ-
Page 18. Shelton.Muon County Journal Thursday, April 10, 1969
A HELICOPTER FLIES over a section of Olympic N&tion-
al Forest in one of the aerial operations carried out in
the re-forestation program.