2021/22 harvest plan photos
At around 3' in diameter and approaching 200' tall This Grand Fir that was recently cut out of the access road and cleared from near the edge of the treatment areas along Old Peak Road/C2C trail is representative of the stand average as reported in the 21/22Harvest Plan. Unlike the purported stand age of 60 to 100 years though, this tree has at least 190 rings and the tight ring count (over 20 rings per inch in places) and complex canopy is indicative of old growth. Many of the trees marked for harvest are at least this large
Above: Repeated Pre and Post treatments of herbicide are used to control invasive species that are introduced and spread to distrubed areas during logging despite the CFSP forest chemicals plan that "Chemical herbicides are used only when other methods are ineffective or prohibitively expensive"
Left: According to the Harvest Plan buldozers "rehabillitated" 1400' of essentially new roads into the wateshed followed by the application of 77 loads or around 770 tons of rock where there was none creating a permanent scar in the watershed. Trees along both sides of the road are heavily marked for removal.
Above: A patch cut of 3-4+' diameter fir trees almost certainly upwards of 200 years old marked for removal. This stand has complex canopies, platform branches and multiple habitat features that do not meet with the stated "restoration" priorities in the Harvest plan. This stand is is area designated O3 Old Growth, Remnant by the CFSP and outside the proposed harvest boundary.
Right: The edge of the watershed and private timber land illustrates the abundance of early seral habitat on the landscape and the importance of maintaining old trees and closed canopies on publicly owned land.
Left: The downsides to spring logging are numerous. Aside from the damage to nesting birds and the potential for sediment runoff into streams, many other species are at their most vulnerable this time of year too. This includes wildflowers like these Calypso Orchids blooming in the project area. Amphibians like this rough-skinned newt, Pacific tree frogs and others. As well as numerous mammal species like Flying squirrels, Dusky red tree voles and the Pacific Marten which depend on the complex closed canopy forest stands like these. Residual trees are also at their most sensitive to bark damage by the logging operation this time of year. For these reasons Corvallis committed to only log during the dry season in the CFSP:
"Logging is restricted to dry-season conditions (to minimize soil impacts and road building costs), and avoided during early spring (to limit bark damage)."